»  a    A    f^rr^jr^  »-\  r^«      y^vf""1*    T~*^¥    T  C^  f*  TAT^.T      'AJITT  C**  T/^^ 

MASTERS  OF  RUSSIAN  MUSIC 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

IN  MEMORY  OF 
EDWIN  CORLE 

PRESENTED  BY 
JEAN  CORLE 


lt*> 


RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 


MASTERS  OF  RUSSIAN  MUSIC 


RlMSKY  -  KORSAKOF 


BY 

M.    MONTAGU -NATHAN 

AUTHOR  OF  "A  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIAN  MUSIC1' 


NEW  YORK 

DUFFIELD  AND  COMPANY 
1917 


To 

FRANK 


Printed  in  England 


College 
Library 


/H 


. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION     - 


PART  I 

CABEBE        -  13 

PART  n 

RIMSKY-KORSAKOF  AS   OPERATIC   COMPOSER  -         69 

PART  HI 

INSTRUMENTAL  AND   VOCAL  COMPOSITIONS  -  -         96 

APPENDIX 

OPERATIC   SYNOPSES     -  -  111 

SYMPHONIC   SYNOPSES  -  119 

LIST   OF   PRINCIPAL    WORKS  -  -  121 

INDEX •  122 


1164065 


RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 


INTRODUCTION 

STUDENTS  of  Slavonic  Literature — a  subject  that 
deserves  the  earnest  attention  of  all  who  would  under- 
stand Russian  music — are  aware  that  the  poets  of  the 
first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  for  the 
most  part  in  revolt  against  the  then  prevalent  worship 
of  Classicism  in  art,  and  that  with  the  early  works  of 
Pushkin  a  movement  aiming  at  the  enthronement  of 
Nationalism  was  initiated. 

The  parallel  force  in  music  can  hardly  be  called  a 
movement,  since  the  prime  mover  was  a  man  who,  at 
a  moment  when  isolated  from  nationalistic  influences, 
stumbled  upon  the  truth  by  accident.  Michael 
Ivanovich  Glinka,  listening  to  music  in  Italy,  suddenly 
became  possessed  by  an  intense  longing  for  a  kind  of 
music  that  would  speak  to  him  of  his  native  land.  At 
that  moment  he  had  little  more  than  his  profound  love 
of  music  to  help  him,  for  his  technical  knowledge  was 
of  the  scantiest.  His  conviction  that  the  music  of  the 
People — a  vast  though  neglected  store  of  melody— 
could  be  used  as  the  basis  of  art-music  was  sufficient. 
The  result  of  Glinka's  effort  has  been  acclaimed  by 

7 


8  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

several  generations,  and  his  fame  as  the  composer  of 
"  A  Life  for  the  Tsar  "  is  ever  on  the  increase. 

But  it  was  not  until  the  fifties  that  Russian  musical 
nationalism  really  became  a  movement.  Active  pro- 
paganda did  not  begin  until  that  fateful  evening  when 
the  two  young  reformers,  Mili  Alexeyevich  Balakiref 
and  Cesar  Antonovich  Cui,  met  at  a  concert  in 
Petrograd,  and  agreed  that  in  the  foundation  of  a 
national  Russian  Music  they  had  a  common  cause 
worthy  of  their  labours.  It  was  then  that  the  first 
word  of  a  glorious  page  in  Russian  musical  history  was 
written.  Their  activities  were  more  or  less  limited  until 
Borodin  and  Moussorgsky  joined  in  their  deliberations, 
and  the  campaign  was  not  fully  launched  until  the  great 
art-critic,  V.  V.  Stassof ,  and  the  composer  Dargomijsky, 
whose  reputation  was  already  established,  associated 
themselves  with  the  little  band. 

Curiously  enough  it  was  the  last  recruit,  and  the  one 
least  musically  educated,  who  was  destined  to  achieve 
more  for  Russian  musical  nationalism  than  any  of  his 
comrades.  When  young  Rimsky-Korsakof  joined  the 
group  he  had  nothing  to  contribute  beyond  an  enthu- 
siasm for  the  joint  ideal.  His  technical  understanding 
of  the  art  of  music  was  virtually  nil  ;  he  had  heard 
comparatively  little,  and  he  did  not  possess  the  saving 
grace  that  gave  Moussorgsky  a  certain  power  among 
them — a  gift  for  piano-playing.  Like  Glinka,  he 
regarded  the  national  ideal  as  something  affecting  him 
personally^  and  profoundly.  If  anything  could  bring 
into  action  the  creative  faculty  he  felt  v.  CE  I::'B:  it 


INTRODUCTION  9 

this  need  for  the  expression  of  the  Soul  of  Russia  in  its 
music — the  chief  topic  of  discussion  among  the  "  Five." 

Historians  relate  that  in  Balakiref  and  Dargomijsky, 
both  personally  known  to  Glinka,  the  "father  of 
Russian  Opera  "  saw  the  upholders  of  the  tradition 
he  had  founded.  Events  have  proved  that  the  young 
naval  cadet,  who  thought  of  the  composer  of  "  A  Life 
for  the  Tsar  "  rather  as  a  god  than  as  a  mortal,  was 
the  one  on  whose  shoulders  the  mantle  of  Glinka 
really  fell. 

For  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  by  nature  both  a  nation- 
alist and  a  propagandist.  He  was,  moreover,  a 
thorough  Russian  in  another  sense.  He  was  possessed 
of  the  spirit  that  drives  a  man  to  undertake  the  ap- 
parently impossible.  And  this  faculty  has  saved  both 
himself  and  the  cause  he  represented  from  destruction 
at  the  hands  of  a  reactionary  opposition.  Begging  the 
question  in  the  argument  contra  Nationalism,  its 
opponents  never  tired  of  referring  to  the  technical 
deficiencies  of  its  advocates.  To  this  Rimsky-Korsakof 
found  only  one  answer  possible.  Already  recognized 
as  a  gifted  composer,  he  addressed  himself  to  an 
arduous  course  of  technical  study,  from  which  he 
eventually  emerged  with  so  great  a  mastery  as  to  arouse 
the  envy  of  the  most  experienced  and  respected 
composer  of  his  day,  Tchaikovsky.  Henceforth 
Nationalism  was  to  be  free  of  the  stigma  of  being 
advocated  by  dilettanti — its  future  was  assured.  The 
naval  officer  had  become  a  musician  at  whose  technical 
attainments  none  could  cavil. 


10  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

But  his  respect  for  the  original  ideal  was  not  in  any 
degree  impaired  by  the  erudition  with  which  his  studies 
had  endowed  him.  Just  as  the  poets  of  the  previous 
century,  prior  to  the  reconstruction  of  the  mutilated 
Russian  tongue,  had  been  obliged  to  equip  their 
stringless  lyre  before  it  could  be  used,  so  had  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  been  confronted  with  the  task  of  constructing 
his  own  personal  medium  of  expression.  Having 
acquired  the  means,  he  proved  his  worthiness  to  attain 
the  end  by  showing  that  the  hardly-won  instrument 
was  in  the  hands  of  a  true  bard. 

That  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  a  poet  no  one  can  doubt 
who  has  read  his  impressions  of  the  ocean,  recorded 
when,  as  a  naval  cadet,  he  cruised  in  the  southern  seas. 
They  recall  Gogol's  famous  descriptions  of  the  steppes. 
Yet  while  a  poet,  he  was  not  lacking  in  the  stuff  of 
which  reformers  are  made. 

When  quite  a  youth  he  was  proud  to  number  himself 
among  the  champions  of  free-thought,  and  he  found 
scope  for  its  advocacy  among  his  comrades  aboard  the 
clipper  in  which  he  made  his  tour  of  the  world — some 
of  them  being  inclined  to  uphold  the  old  regime  of 
serfdom  and  obscurantism.  Reading  of  these  dis- 
cussions, one  is  reminded  of  the  young  Krapotkin, 
who  at  about  the  same  time,  while  a  member  of  the 
Imperial  Corps  of  Pages,  was  awakening  to  a  conscious 
sympathy  with  liberal  principles. 

Fortunately  for  the  composer  he  was  able  to  envelop 
his  protests  in  a  veil  that  was  but  rarely  penetrated 
by  the  eye  of  authority,  though  he  did  not  altogether 


INTRODUCTION  11 

escape  censure.  He  became  embroiled  in  the  troubles 
of  1905  when  pleading  for  the  self-government  he 
deemed  necessary  to  the  future  welfare  of  the 
Petrograd  Conservatoire,  over  which  he  was  then 
presiding ;  and  it  was  not  for  nothing  that  the  students 
chose  the  symbolical  "Kashchei"  as  the  opera  to  be 
performed  at  the  complimentary  gathering  held  in  his 
honour. 

Yet  his  was  not  in  the  least  a  pugnacious  character, 
and  his  music  would  as  well  have  represented  a  man 
who  held  that  the  function  of  music  began  and  ended 
with  the  expression  of  beauty. 

It  has,  however,  done  far  more  than  that.  In  his 
fifteen  operas  Rimsky-Korsakof  has  collected  all  the 
elements  of  art-nationalism.  He  has  taken  the  folk- 
tales of  Pushkin  from  the  fireside  and  has  brought 
them  into  the  theatre,  where  an  assembly  may  be 
made  free  of  them;  he  has  rescued  the  folk-song  from 
the  printed  volume  in  which  it  had  but  an  ethnological 
significance,  and  has  given  it  back  to  those  from 
whom  it  came.  He  has  revealed  the  sources  from 
which  the  all-pervading  spirituality  of  the  Russian 
People  has  sprung,  and  has  introduced  into  his  music- 
dramas  a  vast  amount  of  episodic  material  that,  as  a 
means  of  playing  upon  the  emotions  of  his  audience, 
is  just  as  effective  as  any  folk-song  or  fairy-tale. 

In  his  own  words  he  has  "listened  to  the  People," 
and  has  restored  to  them  their  own  product  embellished 
by  the  touch  of  the  artist. 

"The  People  are  the  creators,"  said  Glinka,   "we 


1 2  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

are  but  the  arrangers."  The  output  of  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  forbids  the  use  of  such  a  term  as  "  arrange- 
ment "  to  describe  it.  His  art  is  a  re-creation,  and 
its  substance  is  transfigured  by  the  glow  of  his  in- 
spiration. 


PART    I 

CAREER 

I. 

NIKOLAI  ANDREYEVICH  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF  was  born 
on  March  6th,  1844  (O.S.),  at  Tikhvin,  in  the  Govern- 
ment of  Novgorod.  The  early  signs  of  musical  aptitude 
shown  by  the  child  cannot  have  come  as  a  great  sur- 
prise to  his  parents,  since  they  were  accustomed  to 
enliven  a  rather  dull  provincial  life  with  musical 
pursuits  of  a  more  or  less  elementary  nature.  His 
father,  a  retired  civil  Governor  and  landed  proprietor, 
played  the  piano  pretty  well,  and  his  fingers,  if  a 
little  halting,  were  capable  of  giving  a  fairly  good 
account  of  his  favourite  tunes  from  such  operas  as 
Mehul's  "Joseph,"  "Tancredi,"  and  "The  Magic 
Flute."  In  her  youth  his  mother  had  been  a  pianist 
whose  defects  were  more  conspicuous  than  her  qualities ; 
one  of  the  former — a  tendency,  when  singing,  to 
reduce  the  speed  of  the  song — was  inherited  by  her  son. 
She  had  a  brother  who  was  musically  gifted  and  who, 
although  entirely  untrained,  was  able  to  play  quite  a 
number  of  piano  pieces  by  ear. 

The    youngster's    first    practical    demonstration    of 
musical  sensibility  was  his  manipulation  of  a  drum- 

13 


1 4  RIMSKY-KORS  AKOF 

stick ;  with  this  instrument  he  showed  himself  capable 
of  keeping  accurate  time  to  his  father's  performance 
on  the  piano,  despite  frequent  deliberately  executed 
variations  of  rhythm  and  tempo.  Before  receiving 
any  serious  instruction  he  discovered  that  he  possessed 
the  faculty  of  "  absolute  pitch."* 

When  six  years  old  he  began  to  learn  the  piano. 
His  first  teacher  was  an  elderly  lady  who  lived  near  by. 
She  taught  the  little  fellow  for  about  two  years,  at 
the  close  of  which  time  she  confessed  herself  at 
the  end  of  her  tutorial  resources.  The  avowal  was  as 
opportune  as  it  was  frank.  The  lad  had  not  found 
her  tuition  at  all  inspiring;  from  his  own  account  we 
learn  that  so  far  he  had  not  experienced  any  conscious- 
ness of  a  love  for  music — he  merely  tolerated  it,  dis- 
playing a  moderate  diligence  in  his  studies. 

He  was  now  placed  under  the  guidance  of  a  governess 
attached  to  a  neighbouring  family,  and  during  the 
next  three  years  made  solid  progress.  On  her  depar- 
ture a  year  or  so  later  she  left  him  to  the  care  of  the 
young  lady  in  whose  family  she  had  been  employed. 
At  the  end  of  the  ensuing  three  years,  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  he  passed  through  the  first  of  two  serious 
crises  in  his  musical  career. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  boy  had  not  up  to  this 
time  displayed  any  considerable  liking  for  music. 

He  was  much  fonder  of  child-like  games  than  of 

*  In  after  life  he  declared  that  his  ear  had  become  very  mucli 
impaired  owing  to  the  difference  in  the  pitches  adopted  by 
the  orchestras  of  the  Conservatoire  and  the  Imperial  Chapel. 


CAREER  15 

music,  and  the  passion  for  mimicry  was  particularly 
noticeable.  Neither  he  nor  his  parents  had  ever 
dreamed  of  the  possibility  of  his  becoming  a  great 
musician,  and  his  demeanour  in  childhood  was  naturally 
regarded  as  being  normal  and  healthy.  He  was  parti- 
cularly fond  of  those  games  in  which  there  was  plenty 
of  scope  for  the  imitation  of  "grown-ups." 

His  parents  intended  him  to  follow  a  naval  career. 
His  elder  brother  and  his  uncle  were  both  in  the 
Service,  and  the  time  was  drawing  near  when  he 
would  enter  the  Petrograd  Naval  College.  The  letters 
written  home  by  his  brother,  now  a  lieutenant,  had 
played  upon  his  imagination,  and  these,  together  with 
some  books  of  travel,  aroused  in  him  an  ardent  desire 
for  a  sailor's  life. 

Curiously  enough,  it  was  a  love  not  so  much  for 
music  as  for  mimicry  which  was  instrumental  in  con- 
vincing the  boy  that  he  was  the  possessor  of  musical 
ability  beyond  the  common,  and  in  preserving  the  seed 
of  the  plant  that  in  due  season  blossomed  forth  so 
wondrously.  The  impulse  that  drove  young  Nikolai 
to  don  paper  spectacles  and  dismember  a  watch 
prompted  him  to  play  at  being  a  composer. 

His  youthful  attempts  at  composition  were  regarded 
by  those  around  him  with  the  same  degree  of  amuse- 
ment as  his  horological  experiments;  there  can  be 
little  doubt,  however,  that  his  attitude  towards  music 
subsequent  to  his  arrival  (in  1 856)  at  the  Naval  College 
would  have  been  very  different  but  for  this  apparently 
unimportant  experience  of  the  function  of  composing. 


16  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 


II. 

Migration  from  the  country  to  the  capital  brought 
with  it  opportunities  of  hearing  music  in  the  larger 
forms.  With  some  friends  of  his  brother's,  the 
Golovins,  young  Rimsky-Korsakof  frequently  visited 
the  Opera;  he  took  a  fancy  to  "  Lucia  "  and  "  Robert," 
and  was  immediately  impressed  by  the  stirring  scenes 
and  music  in  "  A  Life  for  the  Tsar."  He  was  parti- 
cularly pleased  with  "Russian  and  Ludmilla,"  and 
was  not  a  little  concerned  to  discover  that  so  few  of 
his  friends  agreed  with  him  as  to  its  merits.  En- 
raptured with  the  Persian  music,  one  of  the  most 
popular  features  of  this  opera,  he  arranged  it  for  'cello 
and  piano,  and  played  it  in  this  home-made  version 
with  an  acquaintance. 

His  choice  of  instruments  needs  explanation. 

The  removal  to  Petrograd  had  of  course  necessitated 
a  change  of  teacher.  On  settling  down  at  the  college 
he  began  to  take  lessons  with  a  'cellist  named  Ulich, 
a  member  of  the  Alexandrinsky  Theatre  orchestra. 
The  pupil  does  not  appear  to  have  greatly  respected 
his  master's  abilities.  But  the  occasional  visits  to  the 
theatre  prevented  a  total  disappearance  of  his  interest 
in  music.  The  youth  felt  himself  becoming  fascinated 
by  the  art;  yet  he  was  quite  satisfied  with  his  own 
music-making,  at  this  time  that  of  the  most  primitive 
amateur.  To  use  his  own  words,  he  was  merely 
"  trifling  with  it." 


CAREER  17 

He  would  probably  have  gone  on  trifling  for  the 
rest  of  his  life  had  it  not  happened  that  Ulich,  after 
some  years  of  altogether  desultory  instruction,  induced 
the  young  student  to  seek  a  teacher  better  qualified 
to  guide  him.  So  it  was  that  towards  the  close  of  his 
fourth  year  at  college,  Kanille,  a  well-known  and 
esteemed  musician,  was  engaged  to  take  his  musical 
education  in  hand. 

Under  the  new  master  the  smouldering  interest  soon 
burst  into  a  flame  of  enthusiasm.  Encouraged  by 
Kanille,  he  began  to  make  some  essays  in  composition 
of  a  more  ambitious  kind  than  any  he  had  hitherto 
attempted.  He  was  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
orchestra,  and  the  elementary  technique  of  its  consti- 
tuents was  explained  to  him.  From  Kanille  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  heard  for  the  first  time  of  Balakiref . 

What  a  shock  it  must  have  been  to  the  budding 
composer  when,  after  a  year  of  more  or  less  serious 
study,  just  at  the  moment,  in  fact,  when  he  had  begun 
to  loosen  the  bonds  of  complete  ignorance,  his  elder 
brother,  who  naturally  enough  regarded  music  as  merely 
a  pastime  and  looked  upon  a  moderate  proficiency  in 
piano-playing  as  the  ultima  thule  of  every  amateur, 
announced  that  in  his  opinion  no  further  lessons  could 
possibly  be  necessary  !  Kanille,  while  bowing  to  this 
decree,  refused  to  allow  the  lessons  to  be  interrupted, 
and  they  were  continued  unofficially  and,  it  would 
seem,  gratuitously. 

On  a  memorable  day  in  November,  1861,  master 
and  pupil  sallied  forth  together  to  call  on  Balakiref, 

2 


1 8  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

with  whom  the  former  was  of  course  acquainted. 
The  fruits  of  this  visit  did  not  come  to  maturity  until 
some  years  later;  in  the  interim  they  came  near  to 
being  nipped  in  the  bud. 

There  is  110  denying  that  this  first  visit  to  the  house 
of  the  leader  of  the  modern  Russian  School  of  music 
was  an  episode  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  career 
of  Rimsky-Korsakof.  Hitherto  his  musical  environ- 
ment had  been,  speaking  generally,  conventional  and 
not  at  all  progressive.  His  early  association  with 
Balakiref,  whose  education  had  been  anything  but 
academical,  gave  him  at  the  beginning  of  his  musical 
career  an  outlook  upon  the  art  that  was  to  become  for 
a  time  characteristic  of  the  "  New  Russian  School  "  as 
a  whole. 

III. 

Thus  Rimsky-Korsakof,  a  lad  of  seventeen,  ignorant 
of  nearly  all  the  fundamental  theoretic  principles  of 
the  musical  art,  but  nevertheless  devoted  to  it,  now 
found  himself  accepted  and  welcomed  as  the  latest 
and  youngest  disciple  of  modernism.  The  small  circle 
of  five  musicians,  destined  to  become  so  famous  for 
its  advocacy  of  nationalism  and  progress,  was  not  yet 
complete. 

Already  five  years  had  elapsed  since  Cesar  Cui, 
who  in  1850  had  come  from  Vilna  to  enter  the 
Petrograd  School  of  Military  Engineering,  had  been 
introduced  by  Dargomijsky — then  a  well-known 
operatic  composer — to  Balakiref.  Their  first  meeting. 


CAREER  19 

which  took  place  at  a  quartet  concert,  was,  as  the 
written  history  of  modern  music  reveals,  the  founda- 
tion of  the  New  Russian  movement. 

Balakiref  was  relatively  well  qualified  to  assume,  as 
he  did,  the  role  of  leadership  of  the  band  of  five  young 
amateurs.  His  acquaintance  with  Cui  is  now  acknow- 
ledged as  an  episode  of  great  portents ;  but  auspicious 
though  it  may  have  been,  it  must  have  produced  a 
much  fainter  impression  on  Balakiref  than  the  occasion 
on  which  he  produced  his  letter  of  introduction  to  the 
composer  of  "A  Life  for  the  Tsar."  Glinka  had 
quickly  recognized  his  young  worshipper's  gifts,  and 
had  perceived  him  to  be  well  fitted  to  carry  on  the 
tradition  which  he  himself  had  founded. 

Balakiref 's  musical  education  had  been  rather 
peculiar;  but  considering  the  circumstances,  and 
especially  the  moderate  qualifications  of  his  associates, 
he  was  justified  in  regarding  it  as  at  least  comparatively 
extensive. 

Having  spent  much  of  his  boyhood  under  the  roof 
of  Oulibishef  (the  biographer  of  Mozart  and  depreciator 
of  Beethoven),  he  had  availed  himself  to  the  full  of 
the  opportunities  of  study  and  research  afforded  him 
by  the  splendid  library  of  musical  works  amassed  by 
the  eminent  writer.  Besides  a  good  working  know- 
ledge of  musical  form  and  composition,  and  of  the 
theory  if  not  of  the  practice  of  orchestration,  he  possessed 
a  remarkable  gift  for  piano-playing,  and  an  exceptional 
talent  for  reading  at  sight.  He  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  in  the  least  influenced  by  Oulibishef's 


20  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

notorious  reactionary  tendencies ;  they  may  be  reckoned 
rather  to  have  awakened  in  him  a  desire  to  probe  more 
deeply  into  the  mysteries  of  Beethoven's  last  creative 
phase,  and  to  acquire  a  wide  knowledge  of  contem- 
porary musical  currents. 

Cui  was  also  more  or  less  a  self-taught  musician. 
But  the  third  recruit  to  the  modernist  movement  was 
one  who,  despite  a  sound  early  training,  never  ceased 
his  energetic  repudiation  of  traditional  methods.  The 
views  of  Modeste  Moussorgsky  are  no  longer  in  need  of 
championship,  for  they  have  received  the  endorsement 
of  the  entire  musical  world. 

Upwards  of  a  year  after  the  inauguration  of  the 
weekly  meetings  between  Balaldref  and  Cui,  the  latter 
brought  with  him  one  evening  the  young  guardsman 
whom  he  had  met  at  Dargomijsky's  house.  As  a 
friend  of  the  composer  of  "Russalka,"  Moussorgsky 
was  already  known  to  a  section  of  musical  society  in 
Petrograd.  and  Korsakof  had  heard  something  of  him 
from  Kaiiille. 

These,  then,  were  the  companions  of  his  leisure 
hours  during  the  period  of  his  studies  at  the  Naval 
College. 

He  was  deeply  impressed  by  this  totally  strange 
musical  environment.  Satisfied  himself  that  the  art 
of  music  could  not  flourish  without  progress,  he  had 
been  grieved  to  find  so  little  acquiescence  in  his  views 
among  the  outside  world.  Once  within  the  Balakiref 
Circle,  he  perceived  that  not  only  did  these  sentiments 
form  the  foundation  of  the  accepted  creed,  but  that 


CAREER  21 

his  new  associates  evinced  a  disregard  for  traditionalism 
that  was  as  refreshing  as  it  was  daring. 

Rimsky-Korsakof  was  also  profoundly  influenced 
by  the  conspicuous  musical  gifts  of  Balakiref,  who  in 
turn  took  a  considerable  interest  in  his  young  disciple. 
At  his  suggestion  the  material  for  a  symphony,  the 
fruit  of  a  first  attempt  to  apply  the  principles  of 
Kanille's  teachings,  was  put  into  shape,  and  additions 
thereto  were  made  under  his  watchful  eye. 

A  rude  interruption  was,  however,  to  disconcert  the 
novice  just  at  the  moment  when  for  the  first  time  he 
felt  himself  likely  to  become  an  influence  in  the  world  of 
music.  His  college  course  being  at  an  end,  he  had  now 
to  spend  two  or  three  years  on  an  ocean  cruise.  When 
his  appointment  to  the  Almaz  arrived,  he  did  his  level 
best  to  induce  his  brother  to  allow  him  to  relinquish 
the  naval  career.  But  this  effort,  though  receiving 
the  sanction  and  support  of  Balakiref,  who  was  greatly 
upset  at  the  impending  rupture,  was  unavailing,  and 
after  spending  the  summer  at  Kronstadt,  where  his 
ship  was  being  fitted  out  for  the  cruise,  he  bade  a 
rather  sorrowful  good-bye  to  his  musical  friends  on 
October  19th,  1862.  Two  days  later  the  Almaz  put 
out  to  sea. 

IV. 

As  may  well  be  imagined,  the  long  foreign  cruise 
contributed  very  little  to  Rimsky-Korsakof 's  musical 
development,  though,  as  has  been  conjectured  by  more 
than  one  writer,  the  wonderful  tonal  pictures  of  the 


22  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

sea,  painted  by  him  in  such,  works  as  "  Sadko  "  and 
"  Sheherazade,"  were  undoubtedly  inspired  by  im- 
pressions gained  afloat.  His  musical  experiences 
during  the  cruise  were  few.  While  at  Gravesend, 
where  the  ship  remained  for  four  months,  he  made 
an  operatic  pilgrimage  to  Covent  Garden;*  later, 
during  a  stay  of  some  three  months  in  New  York,  he 
heard  two  operas  that  had  already  a  warm  place  in 
his  affections,  namely,  "Robert  "  and  "Faust."  He 
occasionally  played  the  piano  for  the  entertainment  of 
his  mess-mates  and  guests;  and  he  records  the  per- 
formance of  some  duets  with  an  American  pilot,  a 
violinist. 

The  passion  for  composition  quickly  grew  cold. 
The  Andante  for  the  symphony,  begun  before  leaving 
Russia,  and  continued  at  Balakiref 's  written  suggestion 
while  at  anchor  in  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  appears 
to  have  been  the  only  instance  of  creative  work  of  any 
permanent  value  during  the  whole  voyage.f 

Rimsky-Korsakof  began  his  cruise  in  a  spirit  of 
deep  chagrin  at  being  torn  willy-nilly  from  his  musical 
activities  and  associates.  The  profession  of  the  sea 
never  appealed  very  forcibly  to  him,  but  it  is  plain 
that  the  pleasures  of  sight-seeing  and  of  making 

*  In  a  letter  dated  January  20th,  1863,  the  writer  seems 
at  a  loss  adequately  to  express  his  disdain  of  Howard  Glover's 
music  to  "  Ruy  Bias." 

t  The  correspondence  between  Balakiref  and  Kimsky- 
Korsakof,  now  in  course  of  publication,  reveals  that  several 
tentative  efforts  were  submitted  for  the  former's  approval." 


CAREER  23 

acquaintance  with  distant  lands  and  seas  afforded  him 
by  the  voyage  proved  a  fairly  effective  consolation. 
As  time  went  on  he  thought  less  and  less  about  his 
whilom  desire  to  embrace  the  musical  calling.  His 
indifference  to  an  Italian  opera  that  was  being  played 
at  Nice,  where  he  made  a  break  in  the  homeward 
journey,  is  not  perhaps  as  significant  as  it  appears  at 
first  sight,  but  it  is  certain  that  on  reaching  his  native 
shores,  after  nearly  three  years'  absence,  his  regret 
that  his  travels  were  at  an  end  was  almost  as  keen  as 
had  been  the  sorrow  caused  by  his  enforced  renuncia- 
tion of  music.  According  to  his  own  description  he 
was  now  content  to  remain  merely  an  "  officer-dilet- 
tante," in  whom  every  ambition  to  become  a  compcser 
had  been  extinguished. 

It  was  lack  of  self-knowledge  that  led  the  returned 
wanderer  to  imagine  his  aspirations  to  have  withered. 
They  were  only  dried  up  through  being  deprived  so 
long  of  the  musical  atmosphere  necessary  to  them,  and 
no  sooner  did  he  begin  once  more  to  frequent  the  society 
of  his  musician  friends  than  they  revived. 

During  his  absence  the  condition  of  music  in 
Petrograd  had  considerably  improved.  Balakiref, 
with  the  assistance  of  Lomakin,  had  founded  the  Free 
School  of  Music,  and  a  visit  from  Wagner  had  aroused 
great  enthusiasm  in  the  Russian  capital. 

The  Balakiref  Circle  had  secured  a  valuable  recruit 
in  Alexander  Porphyrievich  Borodin,  at  that  time  a 
professor  of  chemistry  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine, 
and  they  were  now  often  joined  in  their  deliberations 


24  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

by  other  interested  individuals,  Stassof  being  the  most 
frequent  visitor.  Borodin  and  Rimsky-Korsakof 
appear  to  have  dispensed  with  the  usual  probationary 
period  of  acquaintanceship,  and  to  have  at  once 
become  firm  friends.  The  latter  was  on  more  or  less 
intimate  terms  with  Moussorgsky,  but  his  relations 
with  Balakiref  and  Cui  were  in  the  nature  of  a  conditio 
pupilli.  Cui  had  lately  obtained  the  post  of  musical 
critic  on  the  staff  of  a  Petrograd  journal. 

Rimsky-Korsakof's  first  musical  task,  set  him,  of 
course,  by  Balakiref,  was  to  put  the  fragments  of  the 
neglected  symphony  into  shape.  Balakiref  proposed 
to  produce  the  work,  when  finished,  at  the  concerts 
connected  with  the  Free  School  which  were  held  under 
his  conductorship. 

The  symphony  was  duly  completed  and  rehearsed, 
and  was  performed  on  December  19th,  1865.  The 
audience,  sympathetic  towards  the  music,  became  still 
more  favourably  disposed  when  its  plaudits  were 
acknowledged  by  a  young  officer  in  uniform.  The 
main  body  of  the  press  was  merely  amiable,  but  Cui 
wrote  a  characteristic  notice  in  which  he  contrived,  as 
was  his  wont,  to  show  his  contempt  for  Rubinstein. 
He  spoke  of  his  young  friend's  work  as  "  the  first 
Russian  symphony  ever  written." 

Despite  a  repetition  of  the  success  when,  in  the 
following  spring,  the  symphony  was  conducted  by  the 
father  of  the  popular  composer  Lyadof,  the  young 
sailor  was  not  inspired  to  make  an  immediate 
addition  to  the  single  example  standing  to  his  credit. 


CAREER  2& 

Early  in  the  Bummer,  however,  he  conceived  the  idea 
of  writing  an  overture  on  Russian  themes,  suggested 
to  him  by  the  now  well-known  work  of  Balakiref ;  but 
beyond  the  selection  of  three  themes  nothing  was  done 
until  after  the  summer  holiday,  which  he  spent 
yachting.  On  coming  ashore  he  got  speedily  to  work, 
and  rapidly  completed  his  overture.  It  was  performed 
under  Balakiref's  direction  at  the  Free  School  in  the 
following  December. 

Rimsky-Korsakof's  account  of  the  double  life  he 
led  at  this  time  is  amusing.  By  the  Balakiref  coterie 
he  was  looked  upon  as  having  a  moderate  gift  for  com- 
position, but  a  deficient  pianistic  capacity.  In  his 
brother's  social  circle  and  among  his  naval  friends  he 
had  quite  a  reputation  as  a  pianist,  and  was  much 
respected  both  for  his  knowledge  of  and  judgments 
upon  "serious"  music,  and  for  his  creative  ability. 
The  Balakiref  Circle  was  kept  in  ignorance  of  the 
compliments  paid  to  the  versatile  young  officer  by 
the  outside  world. 

V. 

From  the  year  1866,  which  found  Rimsky-Korsakof 
installed  in  furnished  rooms  in  Petrograd,  the  young 
composer's  renewal  of  enthusiasm  for  music  may  be  said 
to  date.  He  was  now  enlarging  his  circle  of  musical 
acquaintances — a  circle  which  embraced  a  number  of 
the  most  distinguished  young  artists  of  the  day.  In 
these  surroundings  he  became  rapidly  au  courant  with 
the  doings  of  the  Petrograd  musical  world. 


26  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Balakiref's  encouragement  did  not  cease,  and  the 
leader  of  the  "  Invincible  Band  "  showed  a  decided 
partiality  for  his  young  disciple.  Early  in  1866  the 
former  began  to  take  an  interest  in  the  Southern  Slav 
movement,  then  newly  established,  and  in  anticipation 
of  the  projected  visit  of  the  committee  to  Petrograd 
lie  invited  Rimsky-Korsakof  to  write  a  Fantasia  on 
Serbian  themes,  undertaking  to  give  a  concert  in 
honour  of  the  event  and  to  compose  for  it  an  Overture 
on  Czech  melodies.  The  two  works  were  duly  per- 
formed in  the  May  following.  The  Serbian  Fantasia, 
which  is  dedicated  to  Borodin,  appears  to  be  an  isolated 
instance  of  the  employment  of  Serbian  folk-tunes  in 
art  music. 

Early  in  1867  Rimsky-Korsakof  spent  an  evening, 
thanks  to  Balakiref,  with  Ludmilla  Shestakof,  the 
devoted  sister  of  Glinka.  On  this  red-letter  day  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Dargomijeky,  then  at  work 
upon  his  epoch-making  opera,  "  The  Stone  Guest." 
On  his  subsequent  visits  to  the  house  he  was  often 
disappointed  to  find  that  card-games  had  a  greater 
attraction  for  the  company  than  music.  But  there 
were  compensations  for  this  display  of  frivolity,  and 
on  one  occasion  the  singing  of  the  much  esteemed 
vocalist  L.  I.  Karmalin  encouraged  him  to  try  his 
hand  at  song  -  writing.  The  beautiful  "Oriental 
Romance  "  justifies  his  satisfaction  with  the  result. 

At  this  time  he  became  quite  attached  to  Mous- 
fiorgsky.  They  met  frequently,  and  exchanged  musical 
ideas  with  greater  freedom,  it  seems,  than  was  possible 


CAREER  27 

"    .1 

in  the  presence  of  the  monitorial  Balakiref.  From 
Moussorgsky  he  received  the  suggestion  of  the  subject 
of  "  Sadko  "  as  the  theme  of  a  symphonic  tableau, 
which  he  straightway  set  about  composing.  To  this 
date  belongs  also  his  first  meeting  with  Tchaikovsky, 
who  afterwards  conceived  for  him  an  admiration 
which,  according  to  his  own  confession,  was  not 
unmixed  with  envy. 

The  winter  of  1867  brought  with  it  a  season  rendered 
notable  by  the  return  visit  of  Hector  Berlioz.  A 
series  of  concerts  was  given,  of  which  the  conductor- 
ship  was  shared  by  the  distinguished  Frenchman  and 
Balakiref.  In  the  latter's  programmes  figured  once 
more  the  "Serbian  Fantasia"  and  "Sadko,"  which 
scored  a  great  success.  This  performance  of  "  Sadko  " 
aroused  the  ire  of  the  reactionary  critic  Famintsin, 
who  objected  to  its  modernist  tendencies.  Retorting 
for  the  Circle,  Moussorgsky  composed  his  famous  song 
"  The  Classicist."  Its  text  refers  to  Famintsin's 
foibles,  and  its  music  includes  a  theme  quoted  from 
"Sadko." 

Observing  that  all  his  friends  were  busily  occupied 
in  the  composition  of  works  of  an  ambitious  kind, 
Rimsky-Korsakof  began  to  think  of  a  further  essay 
in  the  symphonic  form.  Unfortunately  the  new 
symphony  (in  B  minor)  did  not  proceed  very  far. 
Certain  strictures  made  by  Balakiref,  who  was  sup- 
ported by  the  remaining  members  of  the  Circle, 
discouraged  the  composer,  and  he  abandoned  his  effort, 
having  written  only  a  portion  of  the  opening  movement. 


28  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

VI. 

The  constitution  of  a  national  music  was  not 
the  sole  preoccupation  of  the  "Five."  The  invasion 
of  Russia  by  alien  musicians,  invited  by  the  reigning 
monarchs  of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  had  left 
its  mark  on  Russian  musical  taste,  had  provoked  the 
revolt  of  the  "  Invincible  Band  "  against  foreign 
music  in  general.  But  in  pleading  for  the  home 
product,  they  were  fully  alive  to  the  importance  of 
securing  for  Russian  music  a  respect  of  which  a  certain 
kind  of  foreign  music  had  not  been  altogether  worthy. 
Not  the  least  significant  item  in  their  agenda  was 
the  restoration  of  Opera  to  the  place  of  dignity  from 
which  it  had  fallen  owing  to  the  licences  sanctioned,  in 
construction  as  well  as  in  performance,  by  the  Italians. 

The  question  of  the  re  constitution  of  Opera  was 
eagerly  and  earnestly  canvassed  by  the  young  Russian 
reformers,  and  they  eventually  arrived  at  an  agreement 
upon  certain  fixed  principles.  Opera  was  no  longer 
to  be  a  performance  designed  solely  for  the  glorifica- 
tion of  melody  and  the  gratification  of  the  singer. 
Instead  of  consisting  of  a  series  of  musical  and  choreo- 
graphic items  loosely  strung  together  by  a  "  plot  " 
that  was  only  tolerated  as  a  connecting  link  in  the 
entertainment,  Opera  was  henceforth  to  be  a  dignified 
dramatic  art.  Some  of  the  reforms  mooted  were  of 
rather  a  drastic  order  when  considered  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  public  that  was  accustomed  to  every  kind 
of  indulgence;  but  a  determination  to  make  no  con- 
cessions to  the  worldly  taste  of  the  old-fashioned 


CAREER  29 

opera-goer  was  one  of  the  first  points  agreed  upon. 
The  primary  consideration  was  to  be  that  of  the 
dignity  of  Opera.  Music-drama  was  to  be  an  art  in 
which  the  two  constituents  could  be  considered  as  on 
equal  terms.  The  "  plot  "  was  no  longer  to  be  inter- 
rupted in  order  to  allow  of  the  introduction  of  a  ballet, 
a  chorus,  or  of  a  vocal  melody  having  no  bearing 
upon  the  dramatic  content  of  the  work.  These  things 
were  to  enter  into  the  scheme  only  when  the  dramatic 
situation  demanded  their  presence.  Music  was  to  be 
neither  the  slave  nor  the  tyrant  of  Drama.  The  two, 
by  means  of  a  perfect  partnership,  were  to  build  up 
an  art  that  would  compel  the  attention  and  command 
the  respect  of  the  artist  and  of  the  thinking  public. 

These  principles  were  founded  upon  reason  and  not 
upon  an  existing  model.  But  they  appealed  so  forcibly 
to  Dargomijsky  that  he  proposed  to  undertake  an 
opera  that  would  conform  to  them.  Feeling  that  the 
advice  of  the  young  reformers  might  be  of  considerable 
assistance  to  him,  he  suggested  that  the  Circle  should 
henceforth  meet  at  his  house,  and  the  musical  setting 
of  Pushkin's  version  of  the  Statue  episode  from  "  Don 
Juan "  was  proceeded  with  (in  Rimsky-Korsakof's 
words)  "  under  our  very  eyes." 

"The  Stone  Guest,"  hailed  on  its  completion  as 
their  "gospel,"  and  styled  by  Cui — the  historian 
of  the  group — "the  keystone  of  the  New  Russian 
Opera,"  did  not,  however,  monopolize  their  evenings; 
songs  and  symphonic  music,  rendered  on  the  piano, 
also  played  a  part. 

At  one  of  them  Rimsky-Korsakof  began  a  friendship 


30  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

that  was  destined  to  become  a  life-partnership.  The 
two  sisters,  Alexandra  and  Nadejda  Pourgold,  the 
latter  of  whom  he  married,  were  by  no  means  the  least 
active  among  Dargomijsky's  musical  set.  Alexandra 
was  a  singer  who  took  her  art  very  seriously,  while 
Nadejda  was  a  fine  pianist  and  all-round  musician. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  spring  (1868)  he  met  the  rest 
of  the  Pourgold  family,  and  to  his  great  satisfaction 
it  was  arranged  that  meetings  should  occasionally  be 
held  at  their  house. 

About  this  time  Rimsky-Korsakof's  attention  was 
directed  once  more  towards  the  writing  of  a  symphonic 
work.  At  the  suggestion  of  Balakiref  and  Moussorgsky, 
he  began  the  now  celebrated  symphonic  suite  "  Antar," 
based  upon  the  legend  of  Senkovsky.  The  suggestion 
of  an  opera  having  Mey's  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof  "  as  its 
dramatic  foundation  emanated  from  the  same  source. 
Devoting  himself  with  energy  to  the  first  project,  he 
composed  the  second  and  third  movement  of  "  Antar  " 
during  the  spring  of  1868,  the  remainder  following  a 
month  or  two  later.  During  the  summer  he  spent  a 
good  deal  of  time  in  the  country.  The  rural  environ- 
ment proved  extremely  inspiring,  and  he  brought 
back  with  him  some  music  illustrative  of  folk-customs 
and  ceremonials  intended  for  the  first  act  of  his  opera. 
A  visit  to  the  Pourgolds'  country  home  was  also 
musically  productive.  Two  songs,  "  Night  "  and 
"  The  Secret,"  were  composed,  and  he  dedicated  them 
to  the  two  sisters.  The  source  of  the  composer's 
inspiration  was  probably  no  secret. 


CAREER  31 


VII. 

When  in  the  autumn  the  Circle  resumed  its  meetings, 
two  works  of  absorbing  interest  were  ready  for  in- 
spection. "  The  Stone  Guest "  was  virtually  com- 
plete, and  was  played  over  to  the  little  gathering. 
The  second,  Moussorgsky's  setting  of  Gogol's  "  The 
Matchmaker,"  in  which  the  composer  had  been  guided 
by  the  same  ideals  as  Dargomijsky,  excited  no  little 
astonishment.  The  music  followed  the  text  of  this 
prose  comedy  word  for  word.  Every  note  in  the  score 
was  devoted  either  to  the  reflection  of  the  sentiment 
of  its  literary  substance  or  to  the  pantomimic  notation 
of  the  gestures  and  demeanour  of  the  dramatis  personce. 
Apparently  the  Circle  was  somewhat  alarmed  at  this 
thoroughgoing  application  of  its  Principles.  Even 
Dargomijsky  thought  that  his  disciple  had  gone  a 
little  too  far,  but  the  composer  of  "  The  Stone  Guest  " 
was  highly  pleased  with  the  general  conception  of  the 
work. 

The  latter's  health  had  for  some  time  been  failing, 
and  he  was  not  able  much  longer  to  afford  hospitality 
to  his  young  adherents.  Early  in  1869  he  died,  leaving 
instructions  that  the  incomplete  portions  of  his  opera 
should  be  filled  in  by  Cui,  its  orchestration  being  en- 
trusted to  Rimsky-Korsakof . 

In  March,  1869,  "  Antar  "  was  given  its  first  public 
performance  at  one  of  the  Russian  Musical  Society's 
concerts.  It  was  warmly  received  by  the  audience, 


32  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

but  a  hard-dying  antipathy  to  the  programmatic  idea 
caused  the  Suite  to  be  unacceptable  to  some  of  the 
old-fashioned  critics.  The  members  of  the  Circle  were 
well  accustomed  to  an  opposition  on  all  points  that 
came  from  the  anti-nationalist  camp,  and  Cui,  on  the 
former's  behalf,  was  generally  prepared  with  a  critical 
Roland  for  every  Oliver  sent  forth  by  their  antagonists. 

Cui's  position  was  on  occasion  rendered  somewhat 
difficult  by  his  dual  activity  as  critic  and  composer* 
It  was  in  order  to  cope  with  a  delicate  situation  that 
Rimsky-Korsakof  consented  to  try  his  hand  at  musical 
journalism.  Napravnik's  "  Citizens  of  Nijni  "  was  to 
be  staged  at  the  Maryinsky  Theatre,  and  as  this  con- 
ductor-composer was  just  then  occupied  in  preparing 
for  a  performance  of  Cui's  opera  "William  Ratcliff," 
the  latter  was  particularly  anxious  to  avoid  expressing 
an  opinion  which  he  imagined  must  be  unfavourable 
upon  Napravnik's  work.  Rimsky-Korsakof 's  article 
upon  the  opera,  coupled  with  a  eulogistic  notice  of 
"  William  Ratcliff "  which  followed  shortly  after, 
resulted  in  creating  a  coolness  between  himself  and 
Napravnik  which  was  lifelong.* 

There  are  many  examples  of  collaborative  music 
among  the  literature  of  the  modern  Russian  School. 
The  notion  seems  to  have  originated  with  a  specimen 
of  joint  composition,  with  which  our  subject  was  now 
called  upon  to  busy  himself.  Gedeonof ,  the  Director 
of  the  Imperial  Theatres,  desired  to  mount  a  composite 

*  Both  notices  are  to  be  found  in  the  published  volume  of 
Kimsky-Korsakof  s  writings. 


CAREER  33 

work  in  the  form  of  an  "  opera-ballet,"  to  be  called 
"  Mlada."     The  plot,  derived  from  the  chronicles  of 
the  Polabian  Slavs,  was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  V.  A. 
Krilof ,  and  the  four  acts  were  to  be  set  to  music  by 
Cui,    Borodin,    Moussorgsky,    and   Rimsky-Korsakof. 
The  production  was  conceived,  however,  on  rather  too 
generous  a  scale,  and  when  the  four  composers  had 
completed  the  greater  part  of  their  labours  the  enter- 
prise was  suddenly  abandoned  owing  to  want  of  funds. 
But  its  music,  though   shelved,  was   not  altogether 
abandoned,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  it  was  made 
use  of  later  in  various  ways  by  its  respective  composers. 
Rimsky-Korsakof  had  entered  into  the  undertaking 
with  much  zest,  and  had  put  on  one  side  his  work  both 
on  the  orchestration  of  "  The  Stone  Guest  "  and  his 
own  opera,  "The  Maid  of  Pskof."     This  he  was  now 
able  to  resume,  and  by  the  end  of  the  summer  of  1870 
he  had  completed  the  former,  had  made  considerable 
additions  to  the  latter,  and  had  found  time  also  to  write 
some  new  songs. 

VIII. 

The  periodical  evenings,  interrupted  by  the  death 
of  Dargomijsky,  had  since  that  event  been  held  either 
at  the  house  of  Mme  Shestakof  or  at  the  Pourgolds'. 
A  further  death,  that  of  Mme  Pourgold,  once  more 
caused  the  gatherings  to  be  suspended  for  a  time.  In 
the  summer  of  1871  the  family  moved  into  the  country, 
but  were  sufficiently  near  to  Petrograd  to  receive  con- 
vStant  visits  from  Nadejda  Nikolaevna's  suitor.  The 

3 


34  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

latter  was  again  hard  at  work  upon  "  The  Maid  of 
Pskof,"  and  had  completed  a  goodly  portion  of  the 
orchestral  score  of  his  opera. 

During  the  summer  occurred  an  event  which,  as  will 
be  seen,  was  destined  completely  to  alter  the  course 
of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  musical  career.  Fortified  by 
the  Circle's  indifference  to  academical  training,  he  had 
hitherto  been  content  to  rely  almost  entirely  upon 
musical  instinct.  One  can  but  marvel  at  his  boldness 
in  accepting  the  task  of  orchestrating  "  The  Stone 
Guest,"  despite  his  want  of  experience  in  this  depart- 
ment. 

But  when  Azanchevsky,  the  newly  appointed 
Director  of  the  Petrograd  Conservatoire,  actually 
offered  him  a  post  as  professor  of  composition  and 
orchestration,  and  the  conductorship  of  the  orchestral 
class  in  that  institution,  he  realized  that  his  profound 
ignorance  of  theoretical  matters  could  no  longer  be 
tolerated. 

His  own  account  of  his  feelings  in  regard  to  the 
acceptance  of  the  post  is  highly  amusing.  He  felt 
that  to  know  nothing  of  counterpoint,  little  of  the 
principles  of  harmony,  to  be  ignorant  of  the  very  names 
of  the  intervals,  to  have  but  the  sketchiest  idea  of 
instrumentation  and  no  experience  of  conducting, 
might  prove  a  little  awkward  for  a  professional  musi- 
cian. And  he  recognized  that,  as  a  professor  of  the 
subjects  he  found  himself  invited  to  teach,  these  gaps 
in  his  equipment  might  easily  place  him  in  a  very 
invidious  position. 


CAREER  35 

He  was  encouraged  to  accept  the  post,  however, 
not  merely  by  the  warm  support  of  his  immediate 
friends,  nor  by  the  flattering  prospect  of  occupying  a 
professorial  chair,  but  because  he  felt  that  the  studies 
that  he  would  now  be  obliged  to  pursue,  even  if  only 
for  self -preservation's  sake,  would  immensely  facilitate 
his  future  work  as  a  composer. 

And  so  our  professor  of  harmony,  counterpoint  and 
composition,  began  to  take  lessons  in  these  subjects 
from  the  students  in  his  class,  who  quite  unconsciously 
enacted  the  role  of  pupil-teachers  !  It  need  hardly 
be  mentioned  that  these  studies  were  supplemented 
by  others.  But  this  at  any  rate  was  the  beginning 
of  those  arduous  researches  that  ended  in  his  becoming 
so  fluent  in  these  subjects  as  to  provoke  an  ill-disguised 
uneasiness  among  his  fellow-members  of  the  Circle. 
Erudition,  they  felt,  was  not  the  best  kind  of  qualifica- 
tion for  a  pioneer.*  The  orchestral  class  appears  to 
have  been  a  success,  and  if  he  did  not  retain  the  con- 
ductorship  very  long  it  was  not  because  he  proved 
himself  in  any  way  incapable. 

Moussorgsky  and  Rimsky-Korsakof  had  by  this  time 
become  great  friends,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1871  they 
resolved  to  share  the  same  roof.  The  latter  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  dining  at  his  brother's  quarters,  but  owing  to 
Voin  Andreyevich's  bad  health  he  had  been  ordered  to 
Italy,  and  his  young  brother,  left  to  his  own  resources, 
chose  this  method  of  guarding  himself  against  loneliness. 

*  From  Cui  he  received  an  intimation  that  his  resolve  must 
inevitably  lead  to  a  parting  of  the  ways. 


36  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

The  two  composers  seem  to  have  arranged  their 
work  exceedingly  well.  Moussorgsky  was  occupied 
just  then  with  "  Boris  Godounof,"  and  "  The  Maid 
of  Pskof  "  was  in  process  of  orchestration.  But  matters 
were  so  well  adjusted  that  their  partnership  caused 
them  no  inconvenience.  This  proximity  enabled  them 
to  make  a  free  exchange  of  ideas,  and  their  room 
became  a  meeting-place  for  the  Circle. 

But  the  arrangement  was  not  of  long  duration. 
Intercourse,  interrupted  in  the  first  place  by  Korsakof 's 
journey  to  Italy,  where  his  brother  had  died,  and  then 
by  his  formal  engagement  to  Nadejda  Pourgold,  became 
less  and  less  frequent.  The  prospective  bridegroom 
spent  every  spare  moment  with  his  betrothed. 

In  January,  1872,  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof  "  was  ready 
for  publication.  It  had  first,  however,  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Censor,  who  took  exception  to  certain 
passages  savouring  of  republicanism,  and  also  to  the 
appearance  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  on  the  stage.  He 
sheltered  himself  behind  a  decree  issued  by  Nicholas  I., 
but  considerately  furnished  an  explanation  to  the  effect 
that  the  spectacle  of  a  Tsar  bursting  forth  into  song 
was  not  calculated  to  promote  the  dignity  of  monarchy  ! 
Through  the  interference  of  one  of  the  composer's 
highly  placed  naval  friends,  the  objection  was  finally 
waived,  and  the  opera  received  the  favourable  consider- 
ation of  the  directorate  of  the  Maryinsky  Theatre. 

But  another  claim  had  first  to  be  satisfied,  and  in 
the  following  month  the  now  fully  orchestrated  "  Stone 
Guest  "  was  mounted.  The  "  cast  "  for  the  occasion 


CAREER  37 

was  beyond  cavil ;  but  the  success  of  this  extraordinary 
opera  (which  contained  neither  chorus  nor  ballet,  and 
was  dubbed  by  one  critic  "  a  recitative  in  three  acts  ") 
— probably  due  to  the  excellence  of  its  interpretation 
— was  not  long-lived,  and  "  The  Stone  Guest  "  dis- 
appeared, after  a  few  performances,  from  the  repertory. 

In  the  early  summer  of  this  notable  year  Rimsky- 
Korsakof,  deserting  his  comrade,  took  a  small  room 
near  to  the  country  house  in  which  his  fiancee  was 
living.  On  June  30th  they  inaugurated  their  long 
and  happy  married  life,  Moussorgsky  officiating  as 
best  man.  The  honeymoon  was  spent  in  Switzerland 
and  Northern  Italy. 

In  the  autumn  the  pair  settled  in  Petrograd, 
the  musical  meetings  were  once  more  resumed,  and 
preparations  were  made  for  staging  "  The  Maid  of 
Pskof."  This  took  place  in  January,  1873.  The  inter- 
pretation was  in  good  hands,  the  best  singers  of  the 
time  were  engaged,  and  the  part  now  associated  with 
Shalyapin  was  rendered  by  the  famous  Petrof.  The 
opera  achieved  a  very  considerable  success,  meeting, 
however,  with  the  usual  carping  criticism  from  the 
ever-dissatisfied  opposition. 

Meanwhile  things  had  not  been  going  very  well  with 
the  Circle  as  a  collective  institution.  Balakiref, 
already  under  the  sway  of  the  religious  mysticism 
that  was  eventually  to  render  him  almost  a  fanatic, 
was  very  rarely  seen  in  musical  society,  and  his  where- 
abouts had  become  the  subject  of  considerable  specu- 
lation among  his  fellow-members  of  the  "  Invincible 


38  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Band."  Mme  Rimsky-Korsakof's  sister  had  married,* 
and  no  longer  attended  the  meetings,  and  the  enthu- 
siasm of  some  of  their  unofficial  adherents  had  cooled. 
But  Moussorgsky,  busy  with  "  Khovanshchina," 
Borodin,  at  work  on  "  Prince  Igor,"  and  Stassof, 
remained  faithful.  Rimsky-Korsakof,  occupied  with 
the  composition  of  a  third  symphony,  was  experiencing 
considerable  difficulty  owing  to  an  anxiety  to  introduce 
therein  a  contrapuntal  interest — a  desire  that  it  was 
not  yet  in  his  power  to  gratify  "  without  tears." 

Soon  after  the  successful  production  of  his  opera» 
the  fates  smiled  once  more  upon  the  composer.  He 
was  invited  to  fill  the  newly-created  post  of  Inspector 
of  Naval  Bands,  a  billet  that  involved  the  entire 
supervision  of  musicians  and  of  music  associated  with 
the  Service  throughout  the  Empire.  This  appoint- 
ment, which  he  accepted,  brought  him  a  very  welcome 
addition  to  his  income.  It  was  also  productive  of 
good  results  in  the  same  way  as  his  Conservatoire 
professorship.  He  resolved  to  acquire  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  military  band.  Procuring  a  set  of 
wind  instruments,  he  set  to  work  during  the  summer, 
spent  as  usual  in  the  country,  and  after  astonishing 
the  natives  to  a  considerable  degree,  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  practical  mastery  as  well  as  a  fairly  sound 
theoretical  knowledge  of  them.  Brought  up  as  he  was 
in  a  circle  in  which  virtually  nothing  was  known  of  such 

*  Alexandra  Pourgold  became  the  wife  of  Admiral  Molas, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  warship  Petropavlovsk  when  she 
was  sunk  by  a  Japanese  mine. 


CAREER  a9 

things,  it  does  not  seem  at  all  strange  that  at  the  very 
outset  of  his  studies  he  should  have  proposed  to  him- 
self the  compilation  of  a  textbook  on  the  subject. 
Its  subsequent  outcome — the  posthumously  published 
Treatise  on  Instrumentation — is  a  work  from  which 
the  present  generation  of  musicians  in  Russia  is  profit- 
ing very  greatly.  In  justification  of  his  acceptance 
of  the  post,  his  Memoirs  record  that  he  found  it  neces- 
sary to  exert  a  fairly  severe  discipline  among  the 
several  foreign  band-masters  under  his  control. 


IX. 

In  the  following  autumn  Rimsky-Korsakof  was 
much  occupied  with  his  new  Inspectorship.  He 
devoted  a  good  deal  of  time  to  the  scoring  of  works 
suitable  for  the  military  type  of  orchestra,  and  busied 
himself  also  with  a  general  reorganization.  One 
reform  that  afforded  him  no  little  satisfaction  was  the 
installation  of  native  band-masters  in  positions  hitherto 
invariably  held  by  aliens,  principally  German.  But 
he  was  not  neglecting  his  primary  vocation.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  autumn  it  was  proposed  to  give  a  concert 
in  aid  of  a  famine  fund.  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  called 
upon  to  conduct,  and  it  was  decided  that  his  now 
completed  third  symphony  should  be  performed. 
The  concert,  held  in  February,  1874,  went  off  very 
happily  in  the  artistic,  though  not  in  the  financial, 
sense,  and  the  conductor  had  every  reason  to  be  satis- 
fied with  his  initial  public  experience  with  the  baton. 


40  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

But  the  symphony  aroused  no  great  enthusiasm 
among  his  friends — its  contrapuntal  substance,  which 
had  given  so  much  trouble  to  the  young  professor,  was 
not  at  all  to  their  taste. 

Another  event  of  importance  punctuated  the  course 
of  this  season.  Just  before  Rimsky-Korsakof's  first 
appearance  as  a  conductor,  the  production  of  "  Boris 
Godounof  "  took  place  on  the  Maryinsky  stage,  causing 
a  great  deal  of  excitement  among  the  adherents  of 
the  modern  Russian  group,  and  indeed  Moussorgsky 
was  the  hero  of  the  hour. 

The  latter  part  of  the  season  was  spent  in  a  tour  of 
the  Crimea.  The  naval  inspector,  having  been  required 
to  report  on  the  band  at  Nikolayef ,  availed  himself  of 
this  opportunity  to  betake  himself,  his  wife,  and  their 
little  son,  born  in  the  previous  summer,  to  the  choicest 
spots  of  Southern  Russia,  and  the  trio  visited  such 
places  of  interest  as  Aloupka,  Yalta,  Sevastopol,  and 
Bakhtchisarai,  the  Oriental  music  of  the  street-players 
in  the  last-named  town  furnishing  the  composer  with 
some  valuable  impressions. 

On  their  return  he  began  his  first  essay  in  chamber- 
music,  the  string  quartet  in  F.  Once  again  he  found 
himself  the  victim  of  that  newly  acquired  knowledge 
of  counterpoint,  and  the  quartet  proved  somewhat 
dull.  The  increasing  "  learnedness  "  of  his  music 
continued  to  disturb  his  friends.  They  were  sorely 
troubled  by  this  disconcerting  result  of  his  studies. 
The  offender,  perceiving  that  his  increasing  knowledge 
of  the  musical  sciences  added  greatly  to  his  capacity 


CAREER  41 

for  enjoying  the  works  of  the  great  masters  of  the 
past,  continued  to  persevere  with  his  exercises  in  coun- 
terpoint and  fugue.  Palestrina  was  now  for  him  an 
idol,  Stassof  an  iconoclast. 

Balakiref  also  upbraided  him,  but  only  by  letter. 
His  withdrawal  from  the  musical  world  had  had  a 
disastrous  effect  upon  the  Free  School ;  he  had  neglected 
to  resign  his  directorship,  which  had  thus  become 
merely  nominal.  In  the  autumn  of  1874  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  was  invited  to  take  over  this  post,  Balakiref 
having  apparently  been  prevailed  upon  by  the  com- 
mittee to  retire.  The  new  director  took  his  duties 
very  seriously,  and  soon  infused  some  life  into  the 
affairs  of  the  School.  In  the  following  March  he  con- 
ducted a  "  classical  "  concert,  the  first  held  in  connec- 
tion with  the  institution  for  three  years,  and  once 
more  aroused  the  indignation  of  his  friends  by  his 
"  retrogressive  "  programme.  His  fast-growing  techni- 
cal equipment  afforded  him,  however,  ample  com- 
pensation for  this  unpleasant  attitude  adopted  by 
them,  and  during  the  summer,  spent  at  a  country 
house  on  the  Neva,  he  zealously  continued  his  studies- 

They  soon  began  to  bear  good  fruit,  evidences  of 
his  prowess  being  provided  in  the  shape  of  some 
choruses  for  female  and  mixed  voices,  piano  fugues, 
and  three  small  pieces  for  that  instrument  (op.  15). 
These  "  exercises  "  seem  to  have  been  a  source  of 
comfort  to  the  Conservatoire  authorities,  who  hoped 
that  some  disquieting  rumours  circulating  as  to  the 
professor's  want  of  training  might  thereby  be  hushed. 


42  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

A  conciliatory  effect  upon  his  friends  was  created  by 
the  second  of  two  concerts  given  under  Free  School 
auspices,  in  which  the  programme  was  exclusively 
devoted  to  Russian  music.  Balakiref,  who  had  lately 
reappeared  in  musical  circles,  was  alone  dissatisfied. 
He  opined  that  to  relegate  Russian  composers  to  a 
"  native  "  programme  might  give  an  impression  that 
Russian  music  was  not  of  sufficient  quality  to  emerge 
successfully  from  comparison  with  the  works  of  the 
famous  "  Westerns." 

Balakiref 's  return  was  of  happy  augury  for  his  now 
established  pupil.  With  him  came  one  Filippof,  a 
religious  mystic,  whose  influence  is  held  responsible 
for  Balakiref's  long  abstention  from  musical  pursuits. 
Filippof  had  collected  a  number  of  folk-songs,  and  at 
his  invitation  Rimsky-Korsakof  set  about  harmonizing 
some  forty  of  these  and  preparing  them  for  publica- 
tion. This  work  prompted  him  to  make  a  collection 
of  his  own.  Of  the  hundred  specimens  published  a 
short  time  after,  many  are  to  be  found  as  themes  in  his 
operas.  Further,  he  was  involved  in  Balakiref's 
undertaking  to  edit  the  scores  of  Glinka's  two  famous 
operas,  in  fulfilment  of  a  promise  made  to  the  great 
man's  sister.  His  consent  to  assist  Balakiref  in  this 
caused  severe  inroads  upon  his  working  hours,  but  the 
task  was  a  very  profitable  one,  as  it  afforded  him  so 
excellent  an  opportunity  of  studying  exhaustively  the 
methods  of  the  "  father  of  Russian  Opera."  Not- 
withstanding a  sudden  influx  of  pupils,  introduced  by 
Balakiref,  he  undertook  at  this  time  the  composition 


CAREER  43 

of  a  string  sextet  for  a  competition  organized  by  the 
Russian  Musical  Society.  This  and  a  quartet  for  piano 
and  wind  instruments  were  completed  during  his 
summer  holiday. 

In  the  autumn,  whilst  still  at  work  upon  the  Glinka 
scores,  he  resolved  to  rewrite  his  own  opera,  "  The 
Maid  of  Pskof,"  and  to  add  to  it  a  setting  of  the  Pro- 
logue of  Mey's  drama,  subsequently  published  under 
the  separate  title  of  "  Boyarina  Vera  Sheloga."  On 
this  he  worked  for  the  greater  part  of  two  years. 

Despite  his  many  occupations,  Rimsky-Korsakof  did 
not  neglect  his  duties  as  Inspector.  He  continued  to 
arrange  and  compose  pieces  designed  to  elevate  the 
taste  of  a  public  that  preferred  its  music  in  the  open 
air.  He  was  a  little  dismayed,  however,  to  discover 
that  this  public  had  a  further  preference  that  did  not 
at  all  commend  itself  to  him.  His  al  fresco  audiences 
were  greatly  interested  in  the  performers,  but  paid 
the  scantiest  attention  to  the  music. 

His  participation  in  "  indoor  "  music  brought  com- 
pensations. During  the  latter  end  of  1876  and  the 
early  months  of  the  following  year  he  organized  and 
conducted  three  concerts  in  connection  with  the  Free 
School.  At  the  first  of  these  his  Serbian  Fantasia  was 
played.  The  second  was  notable  for  a  first  perform- 
ance of  Borodin's  now  famous  B  minor  symphony, 
and  Balakiref's  overture  "  Russia  "  figured  in  the 
third.  Thanks  to  experience  of  this  kind,  he  began 
to  "  feel  his  feet  "  as  a  conductor. 

During  the  annual  rustication,  while  working  at  the 


44  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

revision  of  his  first  opera,  the  idea  of  writing  a  second 
presented  itself  to  the  composer.  Having  discussed 
the  matter  with  his  wife,  he  resolved  to  base  the  work 
upon  Gogol's  famous  tale  "  A  Night  in  May,"  a  story 
that  they  had  read  together  on  the  evening  of  their 
engagement.  For  the  present,  however,  he  did  not 
propose  to  interrupt  his  labours  on  the  revision  of 
"  The  Maid  of  Pskof."  And  in  the  autumn,  when, 
owing  to  the  lapse  of  the  Free  School  concerts  through 
want  of  funds,  some  spare  time  offered  itself,  he 
conscientiously  devoted  it  to  the  organizing  of  the 
inner  life  of  that  institution,  joining  the  students  in 
informal  performances. 

The  School  was  supported  mainly  by  voluntary 
subscriptions,  and  the  general  adequacy  of  these  seems 
to  have  been  due  chiefly  to  the  efforts  of  Balakiref, 
who  was  an  indefatigable  canvasser. 

Balakiref  still  frequented  the  revived  Circle  meetings, 
but  the  younger  members  were  much  happier  on  the 
occasions  when  he  failed  to  put  in  an  appearance.  They 
had  attained  to  musical  independence,  and  preferred 
that  their  individualities  should  remain  unhampered 
by  their  former  adviser's  coercive  methods.  Stassof's 
boisterous  expressions  of  encouragement  were  much 
more  to  their  taste. 

X. 

The  preliminary  sketch  of  "  A  Night  in  May  "  being 
complete,  the  winter  saw  the  composer  hard  at  work 
upon  his  new  opera.  In  this  he  was  often  assisted  by 


CAREER  45 

the  counsels  of  Lyadof,  formerly  a  pupil,  now  a  col- 
league. 

Lyadof,  being  the  son  of  a  celebrated  operatic 
conductor,  had  received  a  liberal  education  in  matters 
theatrical,  and  he  was  thus  able  to  offer  some  valuable 
hints.  But  just  as  his  first  opera  had  been  put  on  one 
side  in  order  to  afford  leisure  for  a  very  curious  joint 
composition  (' '  Mlada  " ) ,  so  was  the  present  work .  In  the 
spring  of  1878  the  second  in  what  is  now  quite  a  long 
series  of  collaborative  enterprises  was  mooted.  This 
was  the  set  of  piano  variations  on  what  is  known  to 
us  as  the  "  chop-sticks  "  theme.  The  plan  originated 
with  Borodin,  who  with  Cui,  Korsakof,  and  Lyadof, 
put  together  a  series  of  quite  charming  little  pieces. 
Later  on  Liszt  expressed  his  approval  of  these  "  Para- 
phrases "  by  writing  an  additional  number. 

An  invitation  to  conduct  some  Russian  concerts  at 
the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1878  threatened  a  further 
delay  in  the  composition  of  "  A  Night  in  May."  But 
after  spending  a  good  deal  of  time  and  trouble  in  arrang- 
ing programmes,  the  composer  found  himself  super- 
seded by  N.  G.  Rubinstein,  the  brother  of  the  famous 
pianist.  This,  in  view  of  his  inexperience,  he  regarded 
as  a  blessing  in  disguise.  At  any  rate  it  enabled  him 
to  resume  work  upon  the  opera,  which  began  to  make 
good  headway  and  was  almost  complete  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  summer  vacation. 

In  December  "  A  Night  in  May,"  having  been 
approved  by  the  Censor,  was  submitted  to  the  operatic 
directorate,  accepted  on  the  recommendation  of 


46  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Napravnik,  and  in  the  spring  was  put  into  rehearsal. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  revival  of  the  Free  School 
series  of  concerts,  the  composer  inserted  some  excerpts 
from  the  new  opera  in  one  of  the  four  programmes  of 
the  scheme.  He  also  included  therein  some  of  Boro- 
din's music  for  "  Prince  Igor,"  the  composition  of 
which  was  proceeding  somewhat  fitfully.  At  a  Moscow 
Philharmonic  concert  at  which  he  was  engaged  to 
conduct,  another  sample  of  his  operatic  work,  the 
overture  to  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  served  to  introduce 
him  to  the  musical  public  in  the  ancient  capital. 
"  Sadko  "  was  also  performed,  and  made  a  profound 
impression  on  the  Muscovites. 

His  subsequent  summer  holiday  brought  forth  a 
sketch  for  "  The  Tale  "  (op.  29),  a  fantastic  orchestral 
work  based  on  Pushkin's  Prologue  to  "  Russian  and 
Ludmilla,"  and  a  string  quartet  on  Russian  themes, 
afterwards  rearranged  as  an  orchestral  Sinfonietta. 

The  rehearsals  of  "  A  Night  in  May  "  proved  some- 
what more  of  a  drain  on  the  composer's  time  than  he 
had  anticipated.  But  the  vexatious,  because  quite 
unnecessary,  delay  did  not  deter  him  from  making 
progress  with  his  further  operatic  plans.  Although 
deep  in  discussion  regarding  the  scenic  arrangement  of 
"  A  Night  in  May,"  his  mind  was  already  busy  with 
thoughts  of  another  work.  He  was  reading  Ostrovsky's 
"  Snow-Maiden." 

Meanwhile  the  Free  School  concerts,  the  Conser- 
vatoire, and  the  Inspectorship  claimed  a  good  deal  of 
attention.  In  respect  of  the  first-named  his  deter- 


CAREER  47 

mination  to  give  prominence  to  contemporary  Russian 
composers  involved  his  bearing  a  further  burden,  for 
having  undertaken  to  perform  their  works  he  found 
the  greatest  possible  difficulty  in  obtaining  them  ! 

He  had  not  only  to  run  after  the  composers,  but  was 
obliged  in  some  instances  actually  to  help  them  copy 
out  parts  at  the  eleventh  hour.  As  will  have  been 
gathered,  Rimsky-Korsakof's  industry  was  never 
confined  to  the  mere  carrying  out  of  his  many  duties. 
To  add  to  his  embarrassments,  at  this  time  Balakiref 
continued  to  send  him  a  number  of  new  pupils.  Among 
them  came  young  Sasha  Glazounof,  whose  mother  had 
for  some  time  been  studying  with  him,  and  who  quickly 
captured  his  master's  esteem  and  affection. 

At  last,  in  January,  1880,  "  A  Night  in  May  "  was 
produced  with,  on  the  whole,  very  happy  results. 
Rimsky-Korsakof's  friends  seem  to  have  been  prepared 
for  a  somewhat  pedagogic  work,  and  were  apparently 
unable  to  rid  themselves  of  certain  preconceived 
opinions.  Their  approval,  at  all  events,  was  but 
lukewarm. 

A  circumstance  arising  out  of  a  return  visit  to  Moscow 
in  the  spring  was  instrumental  in  giving  a  fillip  to  his 
project  for  a  new  opera.  Availing  himself  of  his 
proximity  to  the  home  of  the  author  of  "  The  Snow- 
Maiden,"  he  called  upon  Ostrovsky,  and  was  given  a 
cordial  reception.  Encouraged  by  the  dramatist's 
blessing  he  applied  himself  with  energy,  and  by  the 
beginning  of  the  summer  he  had  already  prepared  a 
good  deal  of  rough  material  for  his  opera. 


48  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

His  surroundings  during  the  summer,  spent  at 
Stelyovo,  could  not  have  been  better  chosen.  The 
beautiful  scenery  and  the  village  life  made  just  the  kind 
of  impression  upon  the  composer  needful  to  inspire 
him  for  the  composition  of  such  a  work  as  "  The  Snow- 
Maiden."  Apparently,  when  seating  himself  at  his 
desk,  he  had  but  to  think  of  the  sights  and  sounds  of 
his  daily  experience  in  this  altogether  delightful 
environment,  and  the  music  flowed  forth.  By  the 
middle  of  August  the  musical  sketch  had  been  filled 
in,  the  orchestration  was  begun  early  in  the  autumn, 
and  by  the  end  of  March,  1881,  the  whole  opera  was 
complete. 

His  confreres  of  the  Circle,  having  heard  nothing 
whatever  of  what  their  colleague  had  been  doing, 
possibly  imagined  him  once  again  deep  in  "  musical 
science " ;  they  were  overcome  with  astonishment 
when  invited  to  listen  to  "  The  Snow-Maiden."  But 
they  did  not  overwhelm  the  composer  with  eulogies 
of  his  work.  Even  Balakiref,  who  showed  consider- 
able pleasure,  appears  to  have  missed  the  beauty  of 
the  whole  poetic  conception,  much  to  the  chagrin  of 
the  poet ! 

The  visits  to  Moscow  having  resulted  in  creating 
a  favourable  impression  of  the  Petrograd  com- 
poser, he  received  for  the  autumn  of  1880  a  third 
invitation.  It  seems  not  at  all  improbable  that 
Tchaikovsky,  who  had  made  Rimsky-Korsakof's  ac- 
quaintance on  the  occasion  of  some  visits  to  the  Circle 
meetings,  may  have  exerted  his  powerful  influence  on 


CAREER  49 

the  latter's  behalf;  as  critic  on  the  staff  of  one  of  the 
papers,  he  lost  no  opportunity  of  praising  his  friend's 
work,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  there  were  reasons  for  sup- 
posing that  Rimsky-Korsakof's  popularity  in  Moscow 
might  at  some  future  time  serve  as  a  useful  asset. 

In  connection  with  the  Free  School  four  concerts 
were  announced  for  that  season.  Only  one  of  them 
took  place.  On  that  occasion  Moussorgsky's  "  The 
Destruction  of  Sennacherib  "  (after  Byron)*  was  per- 
formed. About  five  weeks  later  Alexander  II.,  the 
Liberator,  was  laid  low  by  the  bomb  of  an  anarchist, 
and  within  three  days  of  this  Moussorgsky  breathed 
his  last — his  constitution  ruined  by  excesses. 

XI. 

Of  these  two  tragic  events  the  second,  more  than 
the  first,  was  responsible  for  changes  in  the  subsequent 
course  of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  activities.  The  Free 
School  concerts  were  of  course  abandoned,  but  the 
leisure  this  brought  was  soon  accounted  for.  With 
Moussorgsky's  demise  it  fell  to  his  friend's  lot  to 
examine  and  edit  for  publication  the  mass  of  material 
left  by  the  unfortunate  composer.  Here  was  work 
and  to  spare.  And  this,  according  to  Rimsky-Kor- 
sakof, finally  dictated  his  resignation  from  the  director- 
ship of  the  Free  School,  a  post  that  had  become  more 
and  more  uncomfortable  since  Balakiref's  return  to 
the  musical  world.  The  latter's  interference  in  School 
affairs — the  cause  of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  dissatisfaction 

*  For  mixed  Chorus  and  Orchestra. 

4 


50  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

— was  given  point  by  his  immediate  reacceptance  of 
the  directorship  which  he  had  been  the  first  to  hold. 
A  contributory  reason  for  Rimsky-Korsakof's  decision 
was  his  anticipation  that  "  The  Snow-Maiden  "  might 
be  accepted  for  performance  at  the  Opera,  and  that, 
like  "  A  Night  in  May,"  its  rehearsals  might  demand 
a  considerable  sacrifice  of  time. 

This  anticipation  proved  correct.  After  a  com- 
paratively uneventful  summer,  the  composer  found 
himself  called  upon,  in  December,  to  attend  the  final 
preparations  for  the  production  of  his  opera,  the  pre- 
liminary rehearsals  having  then  been  in  progress  for 
a  considerable  time.  "  The  Snow-Maiden  "  received 
its  first  performance  in  January,  1882. 

Considering  the  number  of  "  cuts  "  that  had  been 
made  in  the  score,  it  does  not  seem  strange  that  the 
critics  should  have  found  it  wanting  in  dramatic  in- 
terest ;  but  the  verdict  given  in  respect  of  what  has  since 
been  accepted  and  acclaimed  as  a  veritable  master- 
piece— viz.,  that  its  composer  was  not  at  his  best  in 
opera — sounds  a  little  odder  than  the  ordinary  mistaken 
criticism  by  which  masterpieces  are  so  often  greeted. 

Belonging  to  this  period  is  the  first  public  appearance 
of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  young  pupil  Glazounof.  The 
astonishment  called  forth  by  the  sight  of  a  youth  in 
schoolboy's  uniform  on  the  platform  recalls  his  master's 
similar  experience.  Certain  sceptics  there  were  who 
did  not  conceal  their  belief  that  the  "  little  Glinka," 
as  the  youth  had  been  dubbed,  owed  his  first  symphony 
to  a  more  experienced  hand. 


CAREER  51 

Glazounof's  advent  was  instrumental  in  bringing 
a  new  figure  into  Petrograd  musical  life.  With  it 
began  a  widening  of  the  sphere  of  the  Circle's 
activities ;  it  was  soon  to  be  reconstituted  and  to 
be  presided  over,  until  his  death,  by  the  newcomer, 
M.  P.  Belayef.  The  first  meeting  between  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  and  the  Russian  musical  Maecenas  took  place 
at  a  concert  held  at  the  Pan-Russian  Exhibition  in 
Moscow,  at  which  the  former  conducted  Glazounof's 
first  symphony.  This  acquaintance  speedily  ripened 
into  friendship,  and  during  this  process  the  Circle, 
now  consisting  of  Borodin,  Stassof,  Lyadof,  Glazounof, 
Felix  Blumenfeld — whom  Rimsky-Korsakof  had  met 
while  on  a  Crimean  holiday  in  the  summer  of  1881 — 
and  Ippolitof-Ivanof ,  gradually  came  under  the  benign 
and  highly  beneficial  influence  of  its  new  leader;  it 
was  not  long  before  the  venue  of  the  meetings  was 
changed  and  he  became  host. 

The  editing  of  Moussorgsky's  works  continued  for 
some  considerable  time  to  occupy  almost  the  whole 
of  Rimsky-Korsakof 's  attention;  the  only  creative 
work  undertaken  during  this  period  was  the  preliminary 
sketch  for  a  piano  concerto  and  the  setting  of  Pushkin'? 
"  Upas  Tree,"  publication  of  which  was  delayed  for 
many  years. 

XII. 

An  indirect  result  of  the  change  from  the  regime  of 
Alexander  II.  to  that  of  his  son  was  the  reorganization 
of  the  institution  known  as  the  Imperial  Chapel.  In 


52  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

this  Rimsky-Korsakof  took  a  large  share  of  responsi- 
bility. The  actual  directorship  was  given  to  Balakiref , 
who  chose  his  junior  as  chief  assistant.  The  latter's 
first  important,  though  by  no  means  onerous,  duty 
was  to  attend  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation  of  the 
new  Emperor  at  Moscow  in  May,  1883.  With  the 
rearrangement  of  the  various  classes  he  found  plenty 
to  occupy  him.  Apparently  this  administrative  task 
and  his  other  duties  occupied  the  whole  of  his  atten- 
tion, for  there  is  no  record  of  any  creative  work  at 
this  time. 

A  relief  of  the  pressure  came  early  in  1884.  Doubt- 
less as  another  result  of  the  change  of  regime,  the 
long-held  Inspectorship  of  Naval  Bands  came  to  an  end ; 
the  post  was  abolished — a  "  reform  "  that  did  not  meet 
with  the  deposed  Inspector's  approval,  especially  as 
the  military  inspectorship  was  retained. 

Belayef's  esteem  for  Glazounof's  early  compositions 
was  such  that  he  now  brought  forward  a  proposal  to 
publish  the  full  score  of  the  first  (E  major)  symphony. 
From  this  initial  venture  sprang  the  great  organization 
with  which  Belayef's  name  has  been  so  long  and  so 
honourably  associated.  Hitherto  he  had  taken  an 
active  part  in  the  control  of  the  large  timber  concern 
left  him  by  his  father.  He  resolved  at  this  juncture 
to  sever  his  active  connection  therewith,  and  henceforth 
to  devote  his  energies  entirely  to  the  welfare  of  native 
music.  With  the  administration  of  the  publishing 
house  of  Belayef,  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  closely  con- 
cerned. To  him  the  foundation  of  the  series  of  con- 


CAREER  53 

oerts  endowed  by  Belayef  for  the  furtherance  of 
Russian  music  is  directly  due. 

At  this  moment  Rimsky-Korsakof  received  an 
invitation  from  Tchaikovsky  to  take  up  the  vacant 
post  of  Director  of  the  Moscow  Conservatoire.  It  is 
a  little  curious  that  the  honour  paid  him  is  not  referred 
to  in  his  Memoirs.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
his  non-acceptance.  His  duties  at  the  Petrograd 
Conservatoire  and  the  Imperial  Chapel,  and  the  con- 
ductorship  of  the  newly  established  Russian  Symphony 
Concerts — an  appointment  shared  with  his  former 
pupil  Duetsch — were  supplemented  by  the  further  tie 
of  his  association  with  Belayef.  In  addition,  there  was 
the  work  on  Moussorgsky's  unfinished  compositions. 

This  had  already  gone  far  towards  completion. 
After  a  considerable  amount  of  trouble,  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  suitably  orchestrating  "  A  Night  on  the 
Bare  Mountain,"  which  was  performed  at  one  of  the 
Russian  Symphony  concerts  in  the  autumn  of  1886, 
and  soon  secured  a  wide  popularity.  But  his  altruistic 
labours  were  not  yet  over. 

At  an  early  hour  on  February  15th,  1887,  he  heard 
from  Stassof  of  Borodin's  sudden  death  at  a  party  on 
the  previous  evening.  Immediately  after  the  funeral 
it  was  decided  that  Glazounof  and  he  should  under- 
take the  completion  of  the  manuscripts  found  at  the 
lamented  composer's  house.  Belayef  held  himself 
responsible  for  their  ultimate  publication.  This  work 
was  begun  at  once,  and  occupied  Rimsky-Korsakof 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  summer,  spent  on  the  banks 


54  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

of  Lake  Nelai.  During  a  break  came  the  famous 
"  Spanish  Caprice." 

By  autumn  he  had  prepared  sufficient  material  for 
a  concert  devoted  to  Borodin's  works,  arranged  in 
connection  with  the  Russian  Symphony  series,  which, 
owing  to  the  indisposition  of  Duetsch,  were  all  con- 
ducted by  Rimsky-Korsakof.  The  "  Spanish  Caprice," 
also  produced  at  these  concerts,  was  apparently  the 
"  hit  "  of  the  season.  This  no  doubt  prompted  the 
writing  of  further  orchestral  works.  In  the  summer 
of  1888  both  "  Sheherazade  "  and  the  "  Easter  Over- 
ture "  were  composed,  and  they  were  performed  under 
Rimsky-Korsakof's  own  conductorship  during  the  en- 
suing concert  season. 

Still  conscientiously  pursuing  the  ideal  of  thorough 
musicianship,  he  seized  the  opportunity  presented 
by  a  Wagner  Season  in  Petrograd,  which  embraced 
a  performance  of  the  "  Ring,"  of  embarking  on  an 
exhaustive  study  of  the  great  German's  methods. 
For  some  time,  therefore,  he  laid  aside  the  pen  of 
composition.  But  during  his  work  upon  the  Borodin 
material,  it  fell  to  him  to  deal  with  the  "  Mlada  " 
fragment,  abandoned  by  its  composer  on  the  shelving 
of  Gedeonof's  ambitious  project.  The  suggestion  that 
"  Mlada  "  might  serve  Rimsky-Korsakof  as  the  sub- 
ject of  an  opera-ballet  came  from  Lyadof.  By  the 
spring  of  1889  it  had  already  taken  shape,  and  at 
Christmas  it  was  ready  for  performance. 

The  change  in  the  Opera  management — Vsevolojsky 
had  been  in  charge  since  the  accession  of  Alexander  III. 


CAREER  55 

—had  not  been  attended  with  any  speeding-up  of 
affairs.  The  staging  of  Borodin's  "  Prince  Igor," 
which  had  been  quickly  got  ready  by  Korsakof  and 
Glazounof,  was  unaccountably  delayed,  and  "  Mlada  " 
suffered  the  same  fate.  Despite  its  immediate  accept- 
ance it  was  not  actually  produced  until  October,  1892. 

In  the  meantime  the  composer  found  other  matters 
claiming  his  attention.  Belay ef  called  upon  him  to 
undertake  the  conductorship  of  two  Russian  concerts, 
to  be  held  at  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1889.  The 
Russian  visitors  were  entertained  by  the  leading 
French  musicians  in  a  fashion  that  enabled  them  to  for- 
get the  scantiness  of  the  audiences.  Owing  to  Belayef 's 
dislike  to  any  form  of  advertisement,  even,  it  seems, 
to  that  of  a  perfectly  legitimate  kind,  the  concerts 
resulted  in  a  heavy  financial  loss. 

In  the  following  spring  Rimsky-Korsakof  visited 
Brussels.  Russian  music  had  been  introduced  into 
Belgium  through  the  efforts  of  the  Countess  Mercy- 
Argenteau  some  years  previously — Cui  and  Borodin 
having  been  invited  to  Liege  and  the  capital  in 
1886 — and  the  Petrograd  master  met  with  a  most 
cordial  reception.  Musicians  came  from  all  parts  of 
Belgium  to  make  his  acquaintance,  and  he  was  shown 
every  possible  attention  and  much  hospitality.  The 
two  Russian  concerts  held  at  La  Monnaie  were  a  com- 
plete success  in  every  way. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  he  celebrated  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  initial  effort  as  composer.  This  was 
made  the  occasion  by  his  friends  for  the  holding  of 


56  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

a  miniature  festival  in  his  honour.  A  concert  devoted 
to  his  compositions  was  organized  by  Belayef,  and  the 
performance  of  the  programme  was  punctuated  by 
tributes  of  all  kinds.  In  the  evening  the  worthy  com- 
poser entertained  his  friends  at  dinner. 

XIII. 

During  the  time  that  had  elapsed  since  the  com- 
pletion of  "  Mlada,"  Rimsky-Korsakof  had  not  been 
sufficiently  settled  to  be  able  to  undertake  further 
contributions  to  the  operatic  stage.  He  had  worked 
chiefly  upon  the  Borodin  material,  and  on  a  revision 
of  all  his  own  earlier  compositions.  Every  work  of 
his  nonage,  prior,  that  is,  to  the  beginning  of  the 
studies  which  had  so  alarmed  his  colleagues  of  the 
Balakiref  Circle,  had  now  been  subjected  to  a  thorough 
overhauling.  From  this  time  on,  during  the  last 
sixteen  years  of  his  life,  he  devoted  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  operatic  composition.  An  opera  per 
annum  was  for  some  little  time  his  average  output. 

He  had  long  been  attracted  by  the  subject  of  Gogol's 
"  Christmas  Eve  Revels,"  but  had  not  felt  himself 
entitled  to  use  it,  since  it  formed  the  basis  of  Tchai- 
kovsky's "  Oxana's  Caprice,"  a  work  for  which 
the  Petrograd  composer  had  little  esteem.  On 
Tchaikovsky's  death  in  the  autumn  of  1893  he  con- 
sidered himself  at  liberty  to  write  a  new  setting. 

The  following  summer  was  spent  at  Vechasha.  Here 
the  environment  proved  propitious;  not  only  did  the 


CAREER  57 

new  opera  quickly  take  shape,  but  the  composer, 
while  engaged  upon  it,  conceived  the  idea  of  a  further 
work.  The  subject  of  this  was  "  Sadko,"  and  in  this 
"  opera-legend "  he  resolved  to  employ  a  certain 
amount  of  the  thematic  material  from  the  symphonic 
poem  of  the  same  name. 

Having  resigned  the  conductorship  of  the  Russian 
Symphony  concerts  and  his  Imperial  Chapel  appoint- 
ment, he  was  able  for  a  time  to  devote  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  day  to  operatic  composition ;  but  owing 
to  the  resumption  of  the  former  duty  for  a  season  of 
four  concerts,  he  was  obliged  to  confine  his  attention 
to  the  one  opera,  and  "  Sadko  "  was  put  on  one  side 
until  the  completion  of  "  Christmas  Eve  Revels  " 
should  be  accomplished. 

Towards  October,  1894,  he  approached  the  Censor, 
only  to  be  informed  that  the  appearance  of  the  figure 
of  Catherine  II.  brought  the  opera  under  the  ban  of 
a  general  prohibition  of  royal  dramatis  personce.  As 
in  the  case  of  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  the  composer's 
influence  was  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  obtain  a 
suspension  of  this  rule.  But  this  modification  of  an 
Imperial  decree  had  an  unexpected  outcome.  At  the 
final  rehearsal,  in  November,  1895,  it  transpired  that 
the  management  had  put  somewhat  too  liberal  a 
construction  upon  the  licence  granted  them;  the 
royal  character  was  made  up  so  faithfully  to  resemble 
the  "  Northern  Semiramis  "  that  two  indignant  mem- 
bers of  the  reigning  house  present  in  the  theatre  made 
immediate  representations  to  the  authorities,  and  a 


58  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

change  was  demanded  as  a  condition  of  the  production. 
It  was  too  late  to  argue,  and  the  Empress  Catherine 
became  a  Most  Serene  Highness,  of  the  sterner  sex. 

In  the  meantime  "  Sadko  "  was  steadily  progressing, 
and  the  composer,  having  again  sought  inspiration  at 
Vechasha,  met  there  his  librettist  Bielsky.  This  time, 
however,  his  work  was  not  so  rapid.  Indisposition 
caused  a  serious  interruption,  and  the  completion  of 
"  Sadko  "  was  delayed  until  after  the  following  summer. 

Rimsky-Korsakof  was  well  accustomed  to  the 
vagaries  of  the  Imperial  Opera  Directorate,  but 
hitherto  he  had  experienced  little  difficulty  in  prevail- 
ing upon  them  to  accept  his  operas.  On  submitting 
"  Sadko,"  however,  he  saw  at  once  that  there  was 
an  entire  lack  of  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  maj  age- 
ment;  he  resolved  therefore  to  take  his  work  else- 
where. An  opportunity  offered  itself  towards  th  end 
of  1897,  when  Mamontof,  an  artistic  millionaire  whose 
name  is  honourably  associated  with  operatic  enter- 
prises, announced  his  willingness  to  produce  "  Sadko  " 
at  the  Solodovnikof  Theatre,  Moscow.  A  rather 
faulty  first  performance  took  place  in  December,  1897. 
Under  the  same  auspices  the  work  appeared  shortly 
afterwards  in  the  capital,  and  met  with  great  success. 

By  this  time  another  operatic  venture  was  already 
in  course  of  preparation.  The  summer  of  1897,  spent 
at  Smichkovo,  was  particularly  fruitful  and  its  product 
varied.  The  rarely-heard  "  Svitezyanka  "*  (a  Cantata 
for  soprano,  tenor  chorus,  and  orchestra),  a  string 

*  After  Mickievicz. 


CAREER  59 

quartet,  a  piano  trio,  and  several  songs  were  com- 
posed. But  the  most  important  item  was  "  Mozart 
and  Salieri,"  an  essay  in  Dargomijskian  opera,  inspired 
by  the  "  Stone  Guest  "  and  dedicated  to  the  memory 
of  its  composer.  This,  like  "  Sadko,"  from  which  it 
differs  so  utterly,  was  entrusted  to  Mamontof ,  and  was 
produced  by  him  at  Moscow  in  the  autumn  of  1898 
and  subsequently  at  Petrograd. 

Another  effort  in  the  declamatory  style  also  figured 
in  Mamontof 's  scheme.  "  Boyarina  Vera  Sheloga," 
begun  in  the  spring  of  1898,  may  be  considered  either 
as  a  very  short  one-act  operatic  study,  or  as  a  Prologue 
to  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof."  Its  literary  substance  forms 
a  key  to  the  dramatic  relationship  between  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  Tokmakof,  the  Governor  of  Pskof,  and  his 
adopted  daughter  Olga,  in  the  work  of  which  it  is  the 
complement,  or  rather  the  Introduction.  At  its  pro- 
duction the  Prologue  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  over- 
shadowed by  the  main  opera,  in  which  Shalyapin  gave  a 
particularly  compelling  performance  as  the  terrible  Tsar. 

Rimsky-Korsakof  was  too  gifted  an  artist  to  be 
content  for  long  with  the  method  of  "  The  Stone 
Guest."  His  next  opera  was  entirely  melodic.  The 
inspiring  effect  of  the  temporarily  forsaken  Vechasha 
neighbourhood  was  fresh  in  the  composer's  memory, 
and  to  this  spot  he  accordingly  returned  in  the  summer 
of  1898,  to  seek  in  its  well-remembered  scenery  the 
evocation  of  melody  for  "  The  Tsar's  Bride."  He  was 
not  disappointed.  Vechasha  exerted  its  former  spell, 
and  the  creative  faculty  was  stimulated  to  a  degree 


60  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

recalling  his  experience  with  the  composition  of  "  The 
Snow-Maiden."  The  orchestration  was  carried  out 
in  the  autumn,  and  the  opera  was  produced  a  year 
later  by  Mamontof. 

Considering  the  number  of  Russian  musical  works 
that  have  been  based  on  Pushkin  literature,  it  is  a 
little  surprising  that  so  determined  a  nationalist 
as  Rimsky-Korsakof  should  have  delayed  so  long  in 
resorting  to  the  folk-lore  creations  of  the  great  national 
poet.  Hitherto  "  Mozart  and  Salieri  "  was  the  only 
example  of  Pushkin  material  used  by  him  in  opera. 
In  this  the  very  nature  of  the  subject  precluded  the 
employment  of  anything  akin  to  "  national "  treat- 
ment. The  choice  of  "  The  Tale  of  Tsar  Saltan,"  one 
of  Pushkin's  best  known  folk-poems,  as  the  basis  of 
his  tenth  opera  gave  him  full  scope  for  such  treatment. 
Here  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  use  the  original  text 
unaltered,  as  had  been  done  with  "  Mozart  and  Salieri,'* 
and  the  libretto  was  entrusted  to  Bielsky.  The  tried 
combination  of  composer-librettist  and  the  Vechasha 
background  again  proved  successful,  and  "  Tsar 
Saltan  "  was  scored  by  the  end  of  the  year,  notwith- 
standing the  composition  of  "  The  Ballad  of  the  Doom 
of  Oleg  "  (for  tenor,  bass  male  chorus,  and  orchestra)  > 
undertaken  as  a  diversion  from  the  operatic  work. 

His  dramatic  output  had  so  far  been,  with  one 
exception,  of  the  "  national  "  order.  The  choice  of 
the  subject  of  Mey's  "  Servilia  "  was  the  outcome  of 
a  desire  to  be  free  once  again  from  the  restrictions 
imposed  by  adherence  to  the  national  programme. 


CAREER  61 

But  Rimsky-Korsakof,  like  Balakiref  and  Glinka, 
preferred  to  construe  the  term  "  nationalistic  "  in  its 
most  liberal  sense ;  he  was  thus  not  deterred  from  de- 
voting himself  to  the  exploitation  of  foreign  nationalism. 
But  the  task  of  reflecting  in  the  score  of  "  Servilia  " 
the  atmosphere  of  its  libretto — which  deals  with 
Rome  in  the  time  of  Nero — was  not  undertaken  with- 
out a  good  deal  of  misgiving.  He  thought  the  matter 
out  with  characteristic  thoroughness,  and  succeeded 
in  formulating  a  thematic  plan  with  which  he  appears 
to  have  been  well  satisfied. 

His  purely  orchestral  work  was  meanwhile  earning 
him  a  solid  Western  reputation.  Invited  a  second 
time  to  Brussels,  he  conducted  there,  in  March,  1900, 
a  Russian  concert,  in  which  the  principal  items  were 
his  own  "  Sheherazade,"  the  symphonic  "Sadko," 
and  Glazounof's  "  Raymonda  "  suite. 

On  his  return  from  Belgium  he  addressed  himself  to 
his  new  operatic  subject.  The  summer  of  1900  was 
spent  abroad,  in  Germany  and  Switzerland,  but  he 
contrived  nevertheless  to  make  solid  progress  with 
"  Servilia,"  and  it  was  ready  for  publication  in  the 
following  spring.  The  opera  was  not  produced  until 
two  years  later,  when  it  was  taken  in  hand  by  the 
Maryinsky  directorate,  now  reconstituted.  With  the 
change  of  management  had  come  an  improvement  in 
administration,  and  Rimsky-Korsakof,  a  little  dis- 
satisfied with  the  somewhat  careless  method  of  pro- 
duction obtaining  among  "  private  "  opera  companies, 
was  highly  pleased  to  learn  that  he  could  once  more 


62  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

count  upon  seeing  his  operas  on  the  Imperial  stage. 
"Sadko"  now  came  into  its  own.  Meanwhile  "Saltan," 
which  had  been  promised  to  the  Mamontof  concern, 
had  been  presented  in  Moscow  (in  October,  1900). 

In  December  of  that  year  the  composer,  by  this 
time  feeling  something  of  a  veteran,  found  himself 
plunged  into  a  series  of  celebrations  in  honour  of  the 
thirty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  production  of  his  first 
symphony.  Returning  from  a  visit  to  Moscow, 
arranged  in  connection  with  these  festivities,  he  was 
dismayed  to  learn  that  a  further  succession  of  concerts, 
banquets,  addresses  and  the  rest,  with  which  he  had 
already  been  surfeited  in  Moscow,  awaited  him.  In 
his  Memoirs  he  gives  the  impression  that  this  "  jubilee  '* 
was  one  of  the  most  unpleasant  episodes  in  his  career  I 

There  was  little  room  in  his  mind  for  such  futilities. 
Three  new  operatic  themes  were  being  considered. 
The  first  was  to  treat  of  Polish  life  in  the  time  of 
Sigismund  III.  and  Boris  Godounof;  its  libretto, 
undertaken  by  Tioumenef,  was  to  be  romantic  and 
non-political.  The  second  was  "  The  Legend  of  the 
Invisible  City  of  Kitej  and  the  Maiden  Fevronia," 
based  on  "  The  Chronicles  of  Kitej,"  which  appear  in 
Bezsonof's  edition  of  Kirievsky's  Song  Collection,  and 
which  had  for  some  time  been  the  subject  of  conversa- 
tions between  the  composer  and  Bielsky.  E.  M. 
Petrovsky,  of  the  Russian  Musical  Gazette,  had  sug- 
gested the  third,  which  was  to  consist  of  episodes  from 
Russian  folk-lore  with  "  Kashchei"  as  the  central  figure. 

Of  these  the  subject  which  most  attracted  the  com- 
poser was  that  of  "Kashchei,"  and  on  this  Rimsky- 


CAREER  63 

Korsakof  was  engaged  at  Krapachouka  during  the 
summer  of  1901,  and  the  ensuing  autumn. 

The  year  1902  was  devoted  partly  to  the  composition 
of  the  Polish  "  Pan  Voyevoda,"  and  to  the  revision  of 
his  edition  of  "  The  Stone  Guest,"  the  orchestration 
of  which  he  regarded  as  being  much  below  the  standard 
of  his  present  powers.  About  two  months  of  this 
year's  holidays  were  spent  in  Heidelberg,  where  the 
composer  made  the  acquaintance  of  young  Igor 
Stravinsky,  who  afterwards  became  his  pupil. 

In  October  "  Servilia  "  was  produced  at  the  Mary- 
insky  Theatre,  but,  failing  to  attract  much  attention, 
was  withdrawn  after  very  few  performances.  In  the 
same  month  "  Kashchei "  received  its  first  performance 
at  the  Solodovnikof  Theatre,  and  the  newer  work 
created  a  much  more  favourable  impression,  as  might 
have  been  expected  from  the  nature  of  its  subject. 

Towards  the  end  of  December,  1903,  the  Belay ef 
Circle,  and  indeed  the  whole  of  Russian  musical  society, 
sustained  a  severe  loss  through  the  death,  after  ?*n 
operation,  of  the  altruistic  publisher.  Among  the 
provisions  of  his  will  was  the  appointment  of  three 
trustees  to  administer  the  various  funds  endowed  by 
this  generous  patron  of  music.  These  were  Rimsky- 
Korsakof,  Glazounof,  and  Lyadof.  The  first-named 
composed  a  small  orchestral  Prelude  "  At  the  Grave," 
which  was  dedicated  to  Belayef's  memory  and  was 
performed  at  the  first  of  that  season's  Russian  Sym- 
phony concerts,  the  series  that  owed  its  existence  to 
the  deceased  benefactor. 

The  composition   of    the    penultimate  opera,  long 


64  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

planned  and  begun  in  the  summer  of  1903  at  Krapa- 
chouka,  was  already  far  advanced  when  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  reached  his  country  quarters  at  "  our 
familiar  and  beloved  Vechasha  "  in  1904.  The  pro- 
duction of  his  "  Servilia  "  by  the  Solodovnikof  manage- 
ment (no  longer  in  the  hands  of  Mamontof),  which 
had  followed  the  Petrograd  presentation,  having 
fallen  somewhat  below  the  standard  required  by  the 
composer,  it  was  decided  to  reserve  the  staging  of 
"  Kitej  "  until  such  time  as  it  should  be  requisitioned 
by  the  Imperial  directorate.  The  anxiously  awaited 
invitation  did  not  arrive  until  towards  the  close  of 
1906.  Owing  to  its  semi-religious  subject-matter,  the 
libretto  had  met  with  some  opposition  on  the  part 
of  the  Censor.  The  composer  was  the  more  grieved 
since,  although  unorthodox  in  his  opinions,  he  was 
a  deeply  religious  man,  and  believed  that  the  stage 
might  be  made  a  powerful  instrument  for  the  spiritual 
elevation  of  the  community. 

It  seems  strange  that  the  permission  eventually 
granted  did  not  foreshadow  a  more  enlightened  attitude 
towards  "  Parsifal  " — a  work  often  compared  with 
"  Kitej  " — which  was  decisively  banned  when,  on  the 
expiration  of  its  copyright,  its  production  in  Russia 
was  mooted.  The  immense  success  achieved  by 
Rimsky-Korsakof's  opera  at  its  first  performance  on 
February  7th,  1907,  was  an  ample  repayment  for  the 
delay.  Unfortunately,  owing  to  the  expense  entailed  by 
its  production,  "Kitej "  could  not  long  be  retained  in  the 
bill,  and  it  was  not  revived  until  nearly  four  years  later. 


CAREER  65 


XIV. 

The  last  years  of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  life  brought 
him  troubles  and  disappointments  that  contributed 
to  the  undermining  of  his  health.  Towards  the  close 
of  1904,  during  the  political  unrest  arising  out  of 
public  dissatisfaction  with  the  conduct  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war,  the  students  of  the  University  began 
an  agitation  in  which  the  Conservatoire  pupils  speedily 
joined.  The  police  were  summoned,  the  Conservatoire 
closed,  and  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  called  upon  to  vacate 
the  Directorship — a  command  intended  as  a  reproof  for 
having  written  to  a  newspaper  explaining  that,  far  from 
instigating  the  students'  agitation,  he  had  actually 
endeavoured  to  calm  them.  This  abuse  of  authority, 
however,  was  followed  by  protests  from  many  parts 
of  the  Empire;  the  students  organized  in  honour  of 
their  late  Chief  a  performance  of  "Kashchei,"  to  be 
followed  by  a  concert  (March,  1905).  In  the  interval, 
however,  such  an  uproar  occurred  that  the  police  not 
only  refused  to  allow  the  concert  to  be  proceeded  with, 
but  placed  an  embargo  upon  Rimsky-Korsakof's 
compositions. 

This  crisis  seems  to  have  thoroughly  upset  the  com- 
poser, and  even  a  summer  at  Vechasha  did  not  secure 
a  return  of  the  peace  of  mind  which  he  naturally  found 
an  indispensable  condition  of  creative  work.  He 
occupied  himself  mainly,  therefore,  in  compiling 
examples  for  the  illustration  of  his  Treatise  on  Orches- 

5 


66  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

tration.  By  the  autumn  the  political  atmosphere  had 
become  a  little  less  troubled.  The  Conservatoire  was 
reopened,  Glazounof  was  appointed  Director,  and  the 
committee  re-engaged  the  deposed  Principal  in  a 
professorial  capacity. 

In  his  Memoirs,  which  close  with  an  entry  made  at 
Garda  in  August,  1906,  Rimsky-Korsakof,  while 
recording  discussions  with  Bielsky  in  the  early  part 
of  that  year  regarding  the  material  for  a  further  opera, 
makes  no  mention  of  "  The  Golden  Cockerel,"  although 
he  refers  to  "  Stenka  Razin  "  (the  subject  of  Glazounof 's 
early  orchestral  poem)  and  to  a  Byronian  tragedy 
(apparently  "  Heaven  and  Earth  "),  sketches  for  both 
of  which  operas  were  found  among  his  papers.  "  The 
Golden  Cockerel  "  seems  to  have  been  begun  very  soon 
after  this  final  entry  was  made. 

In  the  spring  of  1907  Rimsky-Korsakof  attended, 
in  the  capacity  of  conductor,  the  magnificent  Russian 
musical  festival  organized  in  Paris  by  Messrs.  Ossovsky 
and  Calvocoressi,  and  was  admitted  a  corresponding 
member  of  the  French  Academy.*  On  his  return  to 
Petrograd  the  composer,  in  a  letter  to  Zimin,  the 
controlling  spirit  in  a  "  private  "  operatic  enterprise, 
wrote  that  "  The  Golden  Cockerel "  was  virtually 
finished,  butthat  since  the  necessary  process  of  revision 

*  During  this  visit  Rimsky-Korsakof  renewed  his  acquaint- 
ance with  Skryabin,  who  had  just  returned  from  his  American 
tour.  It  is  recorded  that  the  two  composers  entered  into  a 
long  and  animated  discussion,  in  which  they  were  joined  by 
the  somewhat  sceptical  Rakhmaninof,  respecting  "  key-colour." 


CAREER  67 

might  take  as  long  as  the  actual  composition,  it  would 
hardly  be  advisable  to  consider  its  production  during 
the  approaching  season.  On  receiving  word  of  its 
readiness  Zimin  at  once  plunged  into  preparations  for 
its  performance.  He  had  counted  without  the  Censor. 
The  thinly  veiled  satire  of  "  The  Golden  Cockerel  " 
gave  offence  in  high  quarters,  and  despite  Zimin's 
representations  the  prohibition  held  good  until  March, 
1909,  when  the  Censor's  ban  was  removed,  subject  to 
certain  modifications  in  the  text.  The  first  perform- 
ance eventually  took  place  on  September  24th,  1909, 
at  Zimin's  Theatre  in  Moscow,  the  Petrograd  pro- 
duction following  in  January,  1910. 

In  the  opinion  of  Glazounof ,  expressed  in  an  obituary 
notice  of  the  composer,  this  prohibition  undoubtedly 
hastened  his  death;  his  disciple  adds  that  the  refusal 
of  the  French  Society  of  Composers  to  admit  him  to 
membership  was  a  contributory  cause  of  his  decline. 

His  widow,  in  the  Preface  to  his  Memoirs,  states 
that  by  the  time  his  last  opera  was  complete  the  malady 
from  which  he  was  suffering  had  made  considerable 
inroads  on  his  constitution.  Asthma  supervened  in 
April,  1908,  and  shortly  after  he  left  Petrograd  for 
his  country  property,  the  manor-house  at  Lioubensk, 
where,  at  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June  8th, 
the  great  national  composer  succumbed  to  an  attack 
of  angina  pectoris. 

In  addition  to  the  works  already  mentioned  there 
were  found  after  his  death  a  revised  edition  of  Mous- 
sorgsky's  fragment  "  The  Matchmaker,"  which  he 


68  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

had  proposed  to  orchestrate;  sketches  for  an  opera 
on  the  subject  of  "  The  Barber  of  Bagdad;"  and  the 
Manual  of  Instrumentation,  to  which  the  finishing 
touches  had  been  put  a  few  hours  before  the  final 
attack,  and  which  has  since  been  issued  under  the 
editorship  of  his  son-in-law,  M.  Steinberg. 


PART  II 

RIMSKY-KORSAKOF  AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER* 

I. 

IN  the  present  volume  it  will  not  be  possible  to  give 
more  than  a  brief  survey  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  's  operatic 
activity  and  output.  The  reader  who  has  perused 
the  foregoing  narrative  of  the  composer's  life  and  work 
will  doubtless  have  gathered  that  the  literary  subject- 
matter  alone  of  these  fifteen  operas  would  provide 
material  for  quite  a  lengthy  tome,  and  he  is  assured 
that  their  musical  content  is  at  least  deserving  of  an 
equally  extended  treatment.  For  the  present  occasion 
it  must  needs  suffice  to  pass  in  review  the  general 
characteristics  of  the  wonderful  operatic  treasury  left 
by  Rimsky-Korsakof  to  the  world. 

Without  some  knowledge  of  his  forerunners  it  is 
impossible  to  appreciate  the  full  significance  of  his 
works.  They  may  be  said  to  derive  from  three  sources. 

Glinka's  legacy  to  the  theatre  consists  of  two  epoch- 
making  works.  The  first,  "  A  Life  for  the  Tsar,"  is 
historical,  being  founded  on  an  episode  which  is  sup- 
posed to  have  occurred  at  the  time  of  the  inauguration 
of  the  Romanof  dynasty.  The  second,  "  Russian 
and  Ludmilla,"  takes  for  its  text  the  substance  of 

*  See  operatic  synopses,  p.  111. 
69 


70  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Pushkin's  early  poem  of  that  name,  and  is  fantastic 
in  character.  "  A  Life  for  the  Tsar  "  gave  its  com- 
poser an  opportunity  of  introducing  folk-song  and 
melody  of  a  national  character;  in  "Russian  and 
Ludmilla "  Glinka  became,  as  it  were,  a  musical 
imperialist,  and  drew  material  from  a  variety  of  terri- 
torial sources,  from  Finland  on  the  one  hand,  from 
Turkey  and  Persia  on  the  other. 

These  two  operas  have  had  an  influence  upon  sub- 
sequent Russian  music  that  it  would  be  difficult  to 
over-estimate.  The  output  of  Rimsky-Korsakof,  a 
fairly  prolific  operatic  composer,  affords  excellent 
material  for  the  tracing  of  Glinka's  influence  upon  the 
greatest  Russian  composers  of  modern  times. 

But  ere  proceeding  with  our  analysis,  it  is  necessary 
to  take  into  account  a  third  influence,  that  of 
Dargomijsky,  Glinka's  immediate  successor.  This 
composer,  it  will  be  remembered,  wrote  two  important 
operas.  "  Russalka  "  possesses  the  elements  of  folk- 
lore and  fantasy;  in  addition  it  is  to  be  considered  as 
an  attempt  to  break  away  from  the  Italian  tradition. 
Dargomijsky  desired  to  establish  a  closer  relation 
between  the  vocal  music  of  an  opera  and  its  text, 
holding  that  the  intrinsic  beauty  of  a  melody  should 
not  be  regarded  as  an  end  in  itself,  but  that  the  melody 
should  have  a  character  in  keeping  with  the  sentiment 
of  the  words  to  which  it  is  sung.  In  this  particular 
"  Russalka  "  was  but  an  attempt.  In  "  The  Stone 
Guest" — the  work  which  became  the  "Invincible 
Band's  "  model — he  dispensed  with  melody  and  con- 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  71 

fined  the  vocal  line  of  the  opera  within  the  limits  of 
a  melodic  recitative.  This  was  not  the  only  measure 
adopted  to  bring  about  reform.  Dargomijsky  declined 
to  avail  himself  of  the  various  licences  hitherto  ac- 
corded the  operatic  composer.  He  paid  particular 
attention  to  the  question  of  dramatic  realism,  an 
example  of  which  is  to  be  seen  in  the  absence  of  a 
chorus  from  "  The  Stone  Guest  " ;  in  the  play  on  which 
the  opera  is  based  there  was  no  "  crowd,"  and  thus 
a  chorus,  in  Dargomijsky's  opinion,  could  not  be 
legitimately  introduced. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  brotherhood  of  reformers 
discovered  that  if,  as  they  proposed,  subjects  of 
national  interest,  such  as  "  A  Life  for  the  Tsar,"  and 
more  particularly  "  Russian  and  Ludmilla,"  were  to 
be  used  as  the  basis  of  Russian  opera,  it  would  be 
impossible  rigidly  to  follow  the  path  indicated  by 
"  The  Stone  Guest,"  and  the  records  of  Russian 
operatic  composition,  covering  the  thirty  years  follow- 
ing their  tacit  agreement  as  to  a  need  for  compromise 
in  the  matter,  contain  less  than  half  a  dozen  examples 
of  this  "  legitimate "  type  of  opera.  Among  the 
dramatic  works  of  the  "  Five  "  there  are  only  three 
examples.  Borodin  altogether  repudiated  the  Dar- 
gomijskian  principle  of  "  melo-declamation."  Cui 
interpreted  the  code — of  which  he  was  the  strongest 
advocate — with  considerable  elasticity,  and  Mous- 
sorgsky  wrote  only  one  work  in  which  he  strictly 
observed  the  principles,  though,  in  "  Boris  Godounof  " 
and  "  Khovansh china,"  he  effected  a  compromise 


72  RDISKY-KORSAKOF 

which  in  itself  constitutes  an  important  contribution 
to  the  effort  towards  an  emancipation  of  opera  from 
the  noxious  Italian  tradition. 

The  effect  upon  the  operatic  work  of  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  of  these  proposed  reforms  was  not  immediate . 
In  his  first  essay,  '*  The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  much  of  the 
solo-vocal  music  is  in  the  recitatival  manner,  but  the 
opera  cannot  for  a  moment  be  considered  as  following 
the  precept  of  the  "  gospel,"  since  it  contains  a  duet 
and  other  t;  ensemble  "  numbers  which  are  an  in- 
fraction of  the  Dargomijskian  principle.  Rirnsky- 
Korsakof  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  having  definitely 
subscribed  to  that  doctrine — later  in  life  he  spoke 
somewhat  disrespectful^  of  what  he  characterized  as 
an  over-strict  regard  for  the  dramatic  verities — but 
as  having  recognized,  through  association  with  this 
revolt  against  the  past,  that  the  future  must  be  spent 
in  searching  for,  if  not  in  attaining,  the  ideal  operatic 
structure. 

II. 

It  will  be  necessary,  then,  in  reviewing  Rimsky- 
Korsakof's  operas,  to  seek  for  evidences  of  Glinka's 
influence  in  the  direction  of  literary  material  and  poetic 
content,  and  at  the  same  time  to  take  note  of  the 
remarkable  variation  of  style  and  structure  to  be 
discovered  in  the  material  of  his  fifteen  dramatic 
works. 

As  has  been  indicated,  the  Glinkist  tradition  em- 
braces the  use  of  historical,  folk-lore,  and  fantastic 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  73 

material,  and  at  the  same  time  seeks  to  enlarge  the 
territory  from  which  this  may  be  derived  by  drawing 
upon  "  all  the  Russias."  The  Oriental  element  in 
Rimsky-Korsakof's  music,  operatic,  instrumental,  and 
vocal,  is  a  salient  characteristic. 

On  historical  subjects,  or  subjects  pertaining  more 
or  less  closely  to  history,  Rimsky-Korsakof  wrote  three 
operas :  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof  "  and  "  The  Tsar's  Bride," 
in  both  of  which  figures  the  Tsar  Ivan  the  Terrible, 
and  "  Servilia,"  the  last-named  dealing  with  ancient 
Roman  life.  "  Boyarina  Vera  Sheloga  "  is,  properly 
speaking,  a  Prologue  to  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  and  is 
thus  reckoned  as  forming  part  and  parcel  of  its  plot. 

But  Rimsky-Korsakof,  an  ardent  nationalist,  taking 
his  cue  from  Glinka,  has  shown  what  abundant  material 
other  than  that  of  purely  historical  interest  there  lies  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Russian  operatic  composer  who  is 
desirous  of  investing  his  music-dramas  with  an  atmos- 
phere of  nationalism.  The  influence  of  Glinka's 
"  Russian  and  Ludmilla  "  is  clearly  present  in  the 
literary  substance  of  "  The  Tale  of  Tsar  Saltan."  In 
both  instances  the  original  text  was  that  of  Pushkin, 
and  both  stories  are  supposed  to  be  told  by  the  chained 
cat  that  circled  round  an  oak-tree,  telling  a  tale  when 
turning  to  the  left  and  singing  a  song  when  going  in 
the  other  direction.  The  Prologue  of  the  one  is  the 
cat's  Introduction,  which  forms  the  programmatic 
scheme  of  Rimsky-Korsakof 's  orchestral  fantasia,  "  The 
Tale;"  while  the  envoi  of  "Tsar  Saltan"  is  uttered 
by  the  same  whiskered  mouth.  "  Kashchei,  the 


74  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Immortal  "  and  "  Mlada,"  in  which  that  terrible  ogre 
again  appears,  are  obviously  inspired  by  the  Glinkist 
example,  while  "  The  Golden  Cockerel,"  also  after 
Pushkin,  in  its  Oriental  aspect  at  least,  has  certain 
features  in  common  with  "  Russian."  With  one 
exception,  namely,  "  Mozart  and  Salieri,"  all  the 
remaining  operas  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  contain  in  some 
degree  the  fantastic  element  that  was  first  introduced 
into  Russian  Opera  in  Glinka's  second  work.  "  A 
Night  in  May  "  and  "  Christmas  Eve  Revels,"  like  Mous- 
sorgsky's  "  Sorochinsk  Fair,"  are  dramatized  versions 
of  tales  from  a  famous  series  by  Gogol.  In  the  first, 
happiness  is  bestowed  upon  the  hero  through  the 
benevolent  intervention  of  a  grateful  water-nymph, 
the  "  russalka  "  of  Slavonic  legend.  In  this  plot  the 
Devil  is  regarded  by  some  of  the  characters  as  being 
not  the  unlikeliest  visitor  to  their  village;  but  in 
"  Christmas  Eve  Revels  "  he  is  a  prominent  figure, 
and  his  theft  of  the  moon  and  stars — an  act  frequently 
associated  with  his  Satanic  Majesty  in  northern 
legendary  lore — is  the  cause  of  a  deal  of  mischief. 

The  worship  of  pagan  gods,  which  is  a  feature  of 
these  two  operas  and  of  the  opera-ballet  "  Mlada," 
appears  again  in  "  The  Snow-Maiden  " — in  which  the 
advent  of  spring  receives  a  poetic  handling  not  excelled 
in  any  other  of  the  composer's  operas — and  once  more 
in  "  The  Legend  of  Kitej,"  the  work  of  Rimsky- 
Korsakof's  last  period,  which  shows  in  its  literary 
aspect  the  influence  of  "  Parsifal."  A  pantheist  by 
conviction,  Rimsky-Korsakof  delighted  in  dwelling 


75 

upon  the  beauty  of  natural  phenomena  and  in  calling 
attention,  by  means  of  his  art,  to  the  old-time  devo- 
tional practices  that  survive  in  the  ceremonial  dances 
and  games  of  the  Russian  peasant. 

His  study  of  such  works  as  Afanasief's  "  The 
Slavonian  Poetic  Ideas  of  Nature  "  contributed  not 
a  little  to  the  supernatural  element  in  "  Christmas 
Eve  Revels";  and  "The  Snow-Maiden"  is  inspired 
by  the  belief  that  there  could  be  no  finer  manifestation 
of  religious  feeling  than  the  worship  of  Yarilo,  the 
sun-god — a  deity  who  makes  an  appearance  both  in 
that  opera  and  in  "  Mlada." 

The  "  opera-legend  "  "  Sadko  "  comes  under  a 
distinct  heading.  Founded  on  the  Novgorodian  Cycle 
it  is,  like  Borodin's  "  Prince  Igor,"  in  the  nature  of 
an  epic.  Its  literary  material  is  of  two  kinds,  the  real 
and  the  fantastic,  and  in  scenes  where  the  latter 
atmosphere  prevails,  such  as  the  procession  of  sea- 
marvels  in  the  Sea-King's  domain,  one  finds  a  sugges- 
tion of  the  pantheistic  sentiments  of  the  composer. 

Into  the  one  opera  that  has  not  yet  had  mention 
the  supernatural  enters  only  to  a  very  small  extent. 
Dorosha,  a  sorcerer,  an  unimportant  character  in 
"  Pan  Voyevoda,"  which  deals  with  Polish  life  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  produces  a  bowl 
in  which  the  act  of  divination  by  water  is  performed. 


76  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 


III. 

When  a  comparison  is  made  between  the  historical 
operas  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  and  those  in  which  he 
was  able  to  introduce  the  element  of  fantasy,  it  is 
quickly  seen  how  gravely  the  composer  was  handi- 
capped in  treating  "  real  "  subjects.  He  had  so  great 
a  genius  for  descriptive  writing  that  a  text  such  as 
that  of  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof  "  (with  "  Vera  Sheloga  "), 
"  The  Tsar's  Bride,"  or  "  Servilia,"  places  him  at  a 
serious  disadvantage.  His  power  of  describing  fan- 
tastic figures  and  of  revealing  their  nature  by  means  of 
orchestral  devices  is  an  exceedingly  important  item 
among  the  component  qualities  of  his  nationalism. 
One  observes  that  wherever  there  is  scope  in  the  text 
for  fantastic  description,  the  orchestra  is  at  once  given 
a  much  more  important  role.  There  is  already  a 
beginning  in  the  first  act  of  his  second  opera,  "  A  Night 
in  May,"  when,  in  Levko's  narration  of  the  legend  of 
the  oppressed  step-daughter,  the  orchestra  paints  the 
picture  of  her  act  of  self-destruction;  this  orchestral 
episode  contains  the  germ  of  the  music  which  in  the  third 
act  describes  the  unfortunate  maiden,  turned  water- 
nymph  and  surrounded  by  her  attendant  "  russalki," 
who  disport  themselves  in  choral  games  and  dances. 

It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  the  perusal  of  "  The 
Snow-Maiden  "  should  have  brought  Rimsky-Korsakof 
to  the  definite  realization  that  the  treatment  of  "  real 
life  "  was  not  calculated  to  afford  him  full  scope  for 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  77 

his  descriptive  powers,  for  it  was  in  this  dramatic 
study  of  Nature  that  Ostrovsky  had  signalized  his 
departure  from  the  consideration  of  the  purely  mun- 
dane. The  scene  of  the  enchanted  forest  (Act  III), 
with  its  Wood  Spirit,  who  transforms  himself  into  a, 
tree-stump  having  two  glowworms  for  eyes,  and  the 
instantaneous  growths  that  prevent  the  flight  of  the 
terrified  Mizguir,  is  set  to  music  which,  but  for  the 
composer's  emancipation  from  the  bondage  of  "life" 
subjects  imposed  upon  him  by  the  decreed  principles, 
might  never  have  been  written.  It  had  become 
quite  evident  to  him  that,  while  the  historical  sub- 
ject afforded  greater  scope  for  dramatic  action,  he 
could  obtain  ample  compensation  for  the  sacrifice 
when  dealing  with  material  such  as  that  of  "  The 
Snow-Maiden." 

His  subsequent  operatic  output  provides  many 
examples  of  the  orchestral  reflection  of  fantastic 
scenes :  the  dance  of  stars  and  the  procession  of  comets 
in  "Christinas  Eve  Revels"  (Act  III),  the  scene  on 
Mount  Triglaf  in  "  Mlada,"  the  entertainment  offered 
Sadko  in  the  submarine  palace  of  the  Sea-King  and 
the  transformation  of  his  daughter  into  the  river 
Volkhof ,  the  symphonic  introduction  to  the  second  act 
and  the  final  scene  of  "  Tsar  Saltan,"  which  describe 
the  wonders  of  the  magic  island  of  Buyan,  the  music 
which  precedes  the  chorus  of  Snow  Spirits  in 
"Kashchei,'1  the  bird  songs  in  the  scene  of  the  enchanted 
forest  in  "Kitej":  all  testify  to  Rimsky-Korsakof's 
power  of  applying  his  wonderful  imaginative  faculty 


78  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

in  the  use  of  the  individual  instrument  and  of  the 
collective  orchestra. 

Rimsky-Korsakof's  recognition  of  the  survival  of 
many  pagan  customs  in  the  ceremonial  of  popular 
dances  and  games  has  already  been  noted.  As  might 
have  been  anticipated,  there  is  no  neglect  of  this 
material  in  his  operas ;  he  employs  folk-lore  substance 
as  the  basis  of  a  number  of  episodic  songs  and  dances, 
and  obtains  thereby  many  splendid  scenic  and  musical 
effects.  His  profound  knowledge  of  and  delight  in  the 
subject  of  folk-legend,  and  the  artistic  fashion  in  which 
he  wields  that  knowledge,  are  responsible  for  the  many 
decorative  scenes  which  adorn  not  only  the  fantastic 
but  the  historical  operas.  In  the  first  act  of  "  The 
Maid  of  Pskof  "  there  is  a  reference,  in  the  nurse's 
song,  to  the  whistling  dragon  Tugarin,  a  monster  who 
bears  some  resemblance  to  the  "  deathless  "  Kashchei; 
"  A  Night  in  May  "  opens  with  a  representation  of  the 
choral  game  "  The  Sowing  of  the  Millet,"  in  which 
occurs  an  invocation  to  Lado,  the  god  of  spring  and 
of  love;  of  this  there  is  a  further  specimen  in  "  The 
Snow-Maiden  " ;  in  the  second  act  of  "  Mlada  "  there 
is. a  Circling  Dance  or  Kolo,  from  which  the  Russian 
peasants  derive  their  Khorovodes — in  this  Kolo  is 
mentioned  the  god  Koupala,  the  prototype  of  Yarilo 
the  sun-god;  in  "  The  Tsar's  Bride  "  is  a  song  and 
dance,  "  The  Hops,"  an  old-time  autumn  ceremonial. 
The  Trepaks  and  Gopaks  in  "  The  Snow-Maiden," 
"A  Night  in  May,"  "Kitej,"  and  "Kashchei,"  and 
the  Lithuanian  dance  in  "  Mlada,"  go  to  prove  that 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  79 

Rimsky-Korsakof   was   alive   to   the   advantages   of 
national  and  local  colour. 

Owing  to  his  copious  employment  of  folk-song,  he 
has  been  sometimes  unjustly  accused  of  a  poverty  of 
melodic  invention.  But,  as  some  of  the  Russian 
critics  have  good  reason  to  know,  it  is  never  safe  to 
speak  without  the  book  in  this  matter,  for  Rimsky- 
Korsakof,  like  Glinka  and  Moussorgsky,  became 
possessed,  by  an  unconscious  process,  of  the  power  of 
writing  in  the  folk  manner. 

When  dealing  in  genuine  folk-songs,  he  employs 
them  in  more  than  one  fashion.  There  are  already 
specimens  of  complete  songs  to  be  found  in  the  pages 
of  his  early  operas,  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof "  and 
"A  Night  in  May";  but  in  "The  Snow-Maiden," 
in  addition  to  such  tunes  as  that  of  the  birds' 
dance,  the  Carnival,  the  "  Millet "  chorus  and 
others,  he  has  used  certain  suitable  fragments  as  a 
means  of  characterization.  The  very  popular  song 
of  Lei  (the  third  given  to  this  character)  is,  however, 
original.* 

Several  genuine  and  identifiable  folk-melodies  appear 
in  "  Tsar  Saltan,"  one  of  them  being  the  tune  to  which 
the  composer's  children  were  sung  to  sleep  by  an  old 

*  An  instance  of  the  composer's  scrupulous  regard  for 
appropriateness  has  recently  come  to  light  as  the  result  of 
a  comparison  of  Ostrovsky's  original  text  of  this  number, 
(which,  although  written  in  a  metre  foreign  to  folk-song,  was 
set  without  alteration  by  Tchaikovsky,)  and  the  paraphrased 
version,  made  by  Rimsky-Korsakof,  in  order  that  the  music 
might  be  given  the  true  folk  character. 


80  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

nurse;  in  "  Kite]  "  the  tune  of  the  bear's  dance  in  the 
second  act,  the  accompaniment  of  Poyarok's  oration 
in  the  third,  and  the  chorus  of  encamped  Tatars, 
are  all  to  be  recognized  as  quotations  from  Rimsky- 
Korsakof's  own  folk-song  collection;  the  chorus  of 
Mendicant  Friars  in  the  second  act  is  from  the 
collection  of  Filippof,  which  Rimsky-Korsakof  har- 
monized and  edited. 


IV. 

Rimsky-Korsakof's  partiality  for  the  folk-melody 
was  strengthened  by  a  fondness  for  modal  music,  in 
most  cases  the  basis  of  these  tunes.  Several  instances 
of  modal  writing  occur  in  "The  Snow-Maiden"; 
among  them  may  be  mentioned  Lei's  first  song,  the 
Heralds'  proclamation,  and  the  hymn  of  the  Berendeys ; 
others  may  be  seen  in  the  "  Millet  "  chorus  of  "A 
Night  in  May "  and  in  the  dance  of  Msenads  in  the 
second  act  of  "  Servilia  "  (Phrygian) ;  while  in  "  Kitej," 
although  not  as  rich  in  this  respect  as  one  might 
anticipate  from  the  nature  of  the  subject,  there  are 
three  prominent  themes  in  the  ^Eolian  mode,  and  one 
in  the  Phrygian,  associated  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  temporarily  invisible  city. 

Of  Oriental  colour,  bequeathed  to  the  Russian 
School  by  Glinka,  there  is  an  abundance  both  in  the 
instrumental  and  operatic  compositions  of  Rimsky- 
Korsakof.  Besides  the  well-known  "  Hindoo  Mer- 
chant's song  "  in  "  Sadko,"  there  is  a  somewhat  similar 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  81 

Eastern  episode  in  "  Mlada,"  where,  in  a  scene  re- 
calling that  of  the  "  opera-legend,"  a  Moor  cries  his 
golden  wares,  and  in  a  series  of  national  dances 
(in  the  same  work)  there  figures  a  "  half -graceful, 
half -savage  "  Indian  measure.  In  this  opera  also 
is  the  Eastern  music  one  would  expect  to  find  in 
association  with  the  character  of  Cleopatra.  The 
florid  passages  sung  by  Queen  Shemakha  in  "  The 
Golden  Cockerel  "  constitute  a  further  example  of  a 
vein  which  appealed  very  strongly  to  the  composer 
of  "  Sheherazade." 

As  might  be  expected,  Rimsky-Korsakof,  with  such 
varied  material  at  his  command,  had  no  difficulty  in 
maintaining  throughout  the  music  of  an  opera  the 
mood  of  its  literary  substance.  He  neglected  no  detail 
that  could  in  any  way  contribute  to  the  general  homo- 
geneity of  style.  Thus,  when  contemplating  the  com- 
position of  "  Servilia,"  he  argued  that  while  there  are 
no  surviving  data  as  to  the  character  of  the  music  of 
ancient  Rome,  this  circumstance  could  not  excuse  the 
presence  in  such  an  opera  of  anything  that  bore 
the  definite  impress  of  some  particular  non-Roman 
nationality.  He  chose  to  write,  therefore,  in  a 
manner  partly  Italian,  partly  Greek,  and  partly 
Byzantine,  a  procedure  which  he  justifies  on  the 
ground  that  Roman  art  was  borrowed  from  these 
sources. 

Again,  in  "  Sadko  "  he  adopted  a  method  of  recita- 
tival  writing  which  resembles  the  declamatory  intona- 
tion characteristic  of  the  peripatetic  rhapsodists  when 

6 


82  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

reciting  the  Ryabinin  legends.*  "Running  like  a 
scarlet  thread,"  he  observes  in  his  Memoirs,  "  through- 
out the  opera,  this  imparts  a  national  and  historical 
complexion  to  the  work."  In  "  Kitej  "  he  maintains 
the  atmosphere  of  religious  mysticism  as  successfully 
as  he  does  that  of  the  archaic  in  "  Mlada,"  and  the 
satirical  in  "  The  Golden  Cockerel." 

In  the  matter  of  operatic  style  Rimsky-Korsakof  is 
not  to  be  regarded  as  by  any  means  a  faithful  apostle 
of  the  "  Invincible  Band."  The  dedication  to  Dar- 
gomijsky  of  the  opera  in  which  he  implicitly  observes 
the  principles  adopted  by  the  "  Five,"  must  not  be 
endowed  with  too  great  a  significance.  It  was  under- 
taken primarily  as  an  exercise  in  vocal  writing,  in 
which  department  the  composer  was  anxious  to  im- 
prove his  resources.  His  attitude  towards  the  prin- 
ciples was,  in  fact,  as  Pyatnitsky  f  observes,  one  of 
"  enlightened  liberalism,"  and  at  no  time  did  he  pledge 
himself  to  slavish  obedience. 

His  life  was  spent  in  searching  for  an  operatic  method 
which  should  possess  the  quality  of  rationality  without 
making  a  fetish  of  realism.  He  was  not  prepared  to 
exalt  life  or  even  drama  at  the  expense  of  melodious 
music.  In  this  connection  the  preface  to  one  of  his 
operas  is  especially  significant.  The  prefatory  remarks 
printed  in  the  score  of  "  Tsar  Saltan  "  call  the  attention 

*  From  Trofim  Grigorief  Ryabiuin,  an  Olenets  peasant, 
P.  H.  Ruibnikof  obtained,  in  1860,  a  number  of  hitherto  un- 
written legends  for  his  valued  collection. 

f  "  Thematic  Analysis  of  '  Kitej,'  "  Petrograd,  1914. 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  83 

of  producers  to  the  need  of  impressing  upon  the  chorus 
the  necessity  of  refraining,  during  the  lyrical  moments 
of  the  opera,  from  any  kind  of  gesture  or  movement 
that  might  divert  the  attention  of  the  audience  from 
the  singers,  as  "an  operatic  work  is  before  everything 
a  musical  production." 


V. 

Whether  the  search  for  a  via  media  that  would  avoid 
the  austerity  of  declamatory  opera  and  the  licence  of 
the  purely  melodic  was  successful,  must  be  determined 
by  the  individual,  acccording  to  his  own  views  upon  the 
operatic  art.  What  Rimsky-Korsakof  did  attain  was 
an  individuality  of  style  that  has  earned  for  his  most 
characteristic  works  the  honourable  epithet  of  "  Kor- 
sakovian  " — a  description  current  among  Russian 
commentators.  The  mere  mention  of  this  classifica- 
tion, satisfying  though  it  may  be  to  the  casual  observer, 
will  hardly  suffice  for  the  student. 

It  should  be  explained,  therefore,  that  the  operas  of 
Rimsky-Korsakof  arc  divisible  into  the  three  categories 
of  Declamatory,  Melodic,  and  Synthetic,  and  that  the 
synthetic  type  of  opera  is  the  type  associated  with  the 
composer's  name. 

The  process  through  which  the  synthetic  opera  was 
evolved  was  as  follows: 

"The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  Rimsky-Korsakof s  first 
opera,  is,  as  has  been  remarked,  in  the  nature  of  a 
compromise.  In  it  the  composer,  while  respecting  the 


84  EIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

principles  agreed  upon  with  his  colleagues,  does  not 
conform  to  their  letter.  The  dramatic  portions  are 
declamatory,  the  lyrical  in  the  form  of  arioso,  but  the 
choral  scenes  are  conceived  on  rather  broader  lines 
than  a  strict  observance  of  the  Dargomijskian  principles 
would  permit. 

In  the  second  opera,  "  A  Night  in  May,"  theso 
principles  appear  to  have  been  completely  abandoned. 
It  is  as  though  the  composer  were  seeking  to  prepare 
himself  for  the  synthetic  method  by  making  sure  of 
its  primary  components.  "  A  Night  in  May  "  is  a 
melodic  opera,  and  so  neglectful  of  his  duty  to  the 
decrees  of  the  "  New  Russian  School  "  was  the  com- 
poser that  he  actually  permitted  himself  the  licence 
of  including  in  it  several  self-contained  numbers: 
duets,  trios,  and  the  like. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  "  A  Night 
in  May  "  is  in  any  sense  a  return  to  the  Italian  inanities 
against  which  the  reformers  had  so  resolutely  set  their 
face.  The  separate  numbers,  even  in  cases  where 
there  is  no  musical  link  whatever,  do  not  occasion  any 
interruption  in  the  course  of  the  drama;  they  are 
always  relevant  to  the  dramatic  issue.  It  should  also 
be  noted  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  "  melo- 
declamation,"  such  as  that  of  the  scene  in  the  Mayor's 
house  (Act  II). 

With  the  third  work,  "  The  Snow-Maiden,"  came  a 
definite  approach  to  the  synthetic  type.  Here  there 
is  already  a  judicious  alloy  of  the  melodic  and  the 
declamatory ;  here,  also,  is  to  be  seen  a  more  generous 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  85 

and  altogether  broader  employment  of  leading  motives, 
and  the  method  of  using  them  is  individual.  They 
are  not  confined  to  an  orchestral  utterance  but,  pene- 
trating to  the  vocal  parts,  are  on  occasion  worked  up 
into  short  melodies  of  which  they  are  the  foundation. 
Another  device,  first  observed  in  this  work,  is  that 
which  Rimsky-Korsakof  himself  calls  the  "  leading- 
harmony,"  a  term  which  sufficiently  describes  the 
thing  it  represents.  The  presence  in  "  The  Snow- 
Maiden  "  of  a  number  of  quotations  from  traditional 
song  has  already  been  noted. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Russians  possessed  but  little 
knowledge  of  the  Wagnerian  music-drama,  but  with 
the  advent  of  Neumann's  company,  in  1889,  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  was  able  to  familiarize  himself  with  the 
method  of  the  Teuton  genius,  and  in  some  of  his  sub- 
sequent operas  there  is  a  decided  trace  of  Wagnerian 
influence.  This  is  already  observable  in  "  Mlada  "  and 
"Christmas  Eve  Revels."  One  notices  a  far  greater 
wealth  of  symphonic  writing,  and  the  orchestra  attains 
an  independence  hitherto  denied  it,  more  especially 
in  the  descriptive  scenes.  In  the  "  opera-ballet "  are 
to  be  heard  some  harmonies  which  have  plainly  been 
assimilated  and,  as  the  composer  confesses,  the  leading 
motives  are  worked  out  in  a  fashion  that  was  not 
entirely  of  his  own  inventing. 

If  it  is  in  "  The  Snow-Maiden  "  that,  as  the  com- 
poser avers,  he  definitely  found  himself,  the  completion 
of  "  Sadko  "  signalized  the  inauguration  of  that  type 
of  opera  known  as  synthetic  or  "  Korsakovian." 


86  RIMSKY-KORS  AKOF 

An  examination  of  "  Sadko  "  will  provide  ample 
means  of  forming  an  idea  as  to  the  import  of  these 
terms.  The  synthesis  of  styles  is  represented  first  in 
the  direction  of  its  literary  constitution.  Despite  the 
spectacular  character  of  the  opera,  the  dramatic 
interest,  though  perhaps  a  little  wanting  in  intensity, 
is  never  made  to  serve  as  a  mere  peg  on  which  to 
hang  the  spectacle ;  there  is,  too,  a  nice  balance  betweei? 
the  real  and  the  fantastic,  the  harmonization  of  the 
former  being  simple,  while  the  latter  evokes  a  greater 
harmonic  complexity. 

In  the  musical  region  a  further  synthesis  is  obtained 
by  means  of  a  masterly  distribution  of  responsibility 
between  the  orchestra  and  the  voice.  But  it  is  the 
adoption  of  the  "  legendary  recitative  "  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  composer,  secures  for  his  opera  a  place 
altogether  apart,  and  it  is  in  virtue  of  this  device, 
together  with  a  quite  individual  employment  of  the 
leading-motive  system,  that  "  Sadko  "  justifies  its  con- 
sideration as  the  perfect  type  of  "  Korsakovian  "  opera. 

Conforming  to  this  type,  though  in  one  instance 
deviating  a  little  from  its  lines,  are  four  other  operas. 
In  "  The  Tale  of  Tsar  Saltan "  Rimsky-Korsakof 
adheres  to  the  method  of  keeping  the  real  and  fantastic 
elements  separate,  and  he  makes  the  distinction  definite 
by  employing  instrumental  music  for  the  fantastic 
sections,  and  vocal  for  the  real.  To  describe  this 
procedure,  and  to  classify  the  opera  in  which  its 
workings  are  to  be  observed,  the  composer  adopts  the 
term  "  vocal-instrumental,"  and  thus  labels  "  Tsar 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  87 

Saltan."  A  modification  of  the  leading-motive  system 
is  noticeable  in  this  work.  The  motives  are  not  con- 
fined to  the  characters  (only  four  are  thus  endowed), 
but  are  applied  to  events,  occurrences  in  Nature,  and 
the  psychological  phenomena  associated  with  the 
dramatis  personce.  There  is  no  sign  in  "  Tsar  Saltan  " 
that  its  composer  is  allowing  his  individuality  to  be 
dried  up  by  the  flame  of  Wagner's  musical  personality ; 
in  this,  as  in  the  later  operas,  one  is  able  to  recognize 
that  Rimsky-Korsakof  is  an  objectivist,  and  that  even 
in  "  Kitej  "  "  pantheism  "  describes  his  religious  or 
spiritual  attitude  far  better  than  "  mysticism." 

The  reasons  assigned  by  some  writers  for  considering 
"Kashchei  the  Immortal"  as  a  work  that  is  not  to 
be  placed  unreservedly  in  the  category  of  "  synthetic," 
and  that  the  composer  had  completely  succumbed  to 
the  Wagnerian  influence,  are  not  all  of  a  convincing 
kind.  The  preponderance  in  "Kashchei"  of  de- 
clamatory writing  is  not  so  great  as  to  justify  its  being 
considered  as  pertaining  to  that  class,  and  the  sugges- 
tion that  the  uncouthness  of  its  harmonies  should 
weigh  with  classifiers  is  a  little  beside  the  point. 
Harmonic  uncouthness,  as  shown  by  musical  history, 
is  a  purely  relative  thing,  and  as  a  rule  this  quality 
is  proved  in  time  to  have  represented  nothing  more 
than  that  the  music  thus  stigmatized  was  progressive. 
That  the  harmony  of  Korsakof  was  on  occasion,  and 
particularly  in  "  Kashchei,"  unexpected  and  seemingly 
uncouth,  need  not  necessarily  imply  that  it  is  all 
Wagnerian  in  manner.  One  is  obliged  to  confess  that 


88  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

in  some  instances  it  is  reminiscent,*  and  one  can  only 
assume  that  Rimsky-Korsakof,  who  was  not  the  sort 
of  man  to  be  satisfied  with  imitation,  had  in  the  course 
of  a  profound  study  of  Wagnerian  methods  assimilated 
enough  to  have  become  unconsciously  a  mild  plagiarist. 
The  really  frivolous  arguments  are  that  the  presence 
of  the  fanfares  which  open  the  preludes  in  "  Saltan  " 
is  a  result  of  an  undue  reverence  for  the  ceremonial 
of  Bayreuth;  and  that  the  idea  of  "redemption," 
which  is  the  ethical  basis  of  "Kashchei" — Nature's 
movement  symbolizing  social  development — should 
stamp  that  work  as  being  characteristic  of  the  com- 
poser of  "  Parsifal,"  rather  than  as  possessing 
"  Korsakovian  "  attributes. 

The  spiritual  content  of  the  libretto,  the  religious 
mysticism  with  which  the  "  book  "  and  the  score  of 
"  Kitej  "  have  been  suffused  by  Bielsky  and  Rimsky- 
Korsakof,  has  given  rise  to  a  comparison  between  this 
work  and  "  Parsifal."  But  in  virtue  of  the  circum- 
stances that  the  harmony  of  "  Kitej  "  is  by  no  means 
strikingly  Wagnerian,  that  the  opera  contains  just  as 
much  national  as  spiritual  material,  and  that  Rimsky- 
Korsakof,  instead  of  revealing  his  own  psychological 
consciousness,  depicts  that  of  the  protagonists,  the 
comparison  cannot  for  long  be  maintained. 

The  desire  to  make  the  opera  worthy  of  the  synthetic 
denomination  is  very  clearly  manifested  in  "  Kitej." 
The  quality  of  its  textual  material  was  exceedingly 

*  In  the  last  tableau  there  is  a  prominent  melodic  figure  that 
cannot  fail  to  recall  the  Pilgrims'  Chorus  in  "  Tannhauser." 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  89 

helpful.  Apart  from  its  dramatic  value — once  again, 
as  in  "  Sadko  "  and  "  The  Snow-Maiden,"  somewhat 
slender — there  is  a  considerable  variety  of  interest. 
Reflected  in  the  score  of  "  Kitej,"  one  finds  the  musical 
expression  of  pantheism  (in  a  woodland  scene  that 
is,  of  course,  compared  with  the  "  Waldweben  "),  of 
religious  ecstasy,  of  the  pagan  attitude  towards  the 
Christian,  and  of  the  ascetic  attitude  towards  life. 
The  characterization  is  as  diverse  as  the  individual 
and  collective  personalities  are  varied;  the  polyphonic 
character  of  the  music  associated  with  religious  devo- 
tion is  in  wonderful  contrast  to  the  descriptive  pages 
of  the  score.  For  the  vocal  parts,  arioso  prevails; 
but  there  is  an  abundance  of  melody  which  includes 
several  folk-songs.  Finally — and  this  is  something 
more  than  a  mere  factitious  aid  to  characterization — 
there  is  a  complicated  system  of  leading-motives, 
divided  by  the  commentators  into  four  categories, 
which  include  the  "  leading-harmonies  "  first  met  with 
in  "  The  Snow-Maiden." 

"  Kitej  "  is  a  fully  synthetic  music-drama  in  respect 
of  literary  substance  as  well  as  in  the  direction  of  opera- 
tic form.  Korsakof's  last  opera,  "  The  Golden 
Cockerel,"  is  designed  on  a  much  smaller  plan.  There 
is  a  synthesis  as  to  construction,  but  its  literary 
interest  does  not  afford  the  same  scope  for  varying 
the  character  of  its  music.  In  one  sense  above  all 
others,  however,  it  is  "  Korsakovian."  The  satire  it 
contains — unfortunately  smothered  in  the  London 
performances,  owing  to  an  entirely  misplaced  emphasis 


90  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

of  the  spectacular — is  characteristic  of  a  man  who 
resented  any  sort  of  high-handed  interference  with 
the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and  the  pungency  of  his 
protest  was  acknowledged  when  "  The  Golden 
Cockerel "  was  banned. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  direct  evidence  that  Rimsky- 
Korsakof,  in  making  his  initial  essays  in  operatic  form, 
began  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  acquiring 
experience  in  the  use  of  the  two  main  contributory 
factors  to  the  synthetic  type  he  ultimately  evolved. 
But  in  undertaking  to  set  one  of  Pushkin's  "  dramatic 
scenes  "  to  music  without  altering  the  text,  it  is  clear 
that,  besides  the  definite  plan  of  improving  himself 
in  the  writing  of  melodic  recitative,  the  impulse  to 
try  conclusions  with  the  austere  Dargomijskian  method 
must  have  been  present.  "  Mozart  and  Salieri," 
though  conforming  to  the  principles  of  the  "  New 
Russian  School,"  has  little  in  common  with  either 
"  The  Stone  Guest  "  or  Moussorgsky's  "  The  Match- 
maker." It  has  none  of  the  symphonic  interest  of 
the  "  gospel,"  nor  is  there  any  of  that  notation  of 
gesture  which  is  so  wonderful  a  feature  of  Moussorgsky's 
fragment.  Leading-motives  play  a  very  small  part, 
and  there  are  but  few  instances  of  tonal  suggestion. 
The  music  is  consistently  Mozartean,  and  the  little 
movement  composed  for  Mozart's  "  improvization  " 
is  a  masterpiece  that  must  cause  us  either  to  modify 
our  idolization  of  the  composer  of  "  Don  Giovanni," 
or  to  place  Rimsky-Korsakof  within  the  same 
sanctum. 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  91 

"  Boyarina  Vera  Sheloga "  is  another  essay  the 
declamatory  style  of  which  was  chosen  partly  for  the 
same  considerations  as  those  determining  the  method 
of  "  Mozart  and  Salieri,"  and  partly,  as  is  obvious,  in 
order  that  there  should  be  no  incongruity  of  style 
between  this  work  and  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  to  which 
it  serves  as  Prologue. 


VI. 

It  will  easily  be  grasped  that,  as  Rimsky-Korsakof 
did  not  himself  attempt  the  classification  of  his 
operas,  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  disagreement 
as  to  the  placing  of  some  of  them.  Thus,  according 
to  one  authority,  "Kashchei"  belongs  rightly  to  the 
declamatory  order;  while  in  another's  view  it  earns 
a  place  in  the  same  list  with  "  Sadko."  But  there  is 
no  room  for  disagreement  about  either  "  The  Tsar's 
Bride,"  "  Servilia,"  or  "  Pan  Voyevoda,"  so  far  as 
concerns  their  general  character.  One  may  be  par- 
doned for  assuming  that  when  Rimsky-Korsakof  so 
boldly  disregarded  the  decreed  canons  in  "  A  Night  in 
May,"  he  was  fortified  by  Borodin's  rebellious  declara- 
tion that  for  him  melody  was  a  positive  necessity  of 
musical  life.  What  lends  weight  to  the  supposition  is 
that,  in  taking  up  the  subject  of  his  dead  friend's 
abortive  essay  in  declamatory  opera,  Rimsky-Korsakof 
seems  to  have  been  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  com- 
poser of  "  Prince  Igor."  "  The  Tsar's  Bride  "  was 
not  only  to  be  definitely  melodic,  but  was  entirely  to 


92  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

ignore  the  Dargomijskian  tradition.  When  we  read 
what  the  composer  has  written  on  the  subject — which 
is  to  the  effect  that  he  intended  writing  real  ensembles 
in  which  people  actually  sang  together — we  are  able 
to  realize  the  spirit  in  which  this  opera  was  devised 
and  carried  out.  It  is  a  lyrical  opera,  and  is  a  direct 
offspring  of  "  A  Life  for  the  Tsar."  It  begins  with  the 
conventional  long  overture,  which  is  not,  however, 
self-contained,*  and  is  constructed  apparently  with 
a  view  to  the  provision  of  a  feast  of  melody,  in  which 
Liouba's  unaccompanied  song  in  the  second  act — 
repeated  as  an  orchestral  intermezzo — and  Martha's 
aria  in  the  third  are  favourite  dishes.  The  composer 
had  by  this  time  assimilated  the  folk-song  manner  to 
his  own  satisfaction,  and  was  able  to  dispense  with 
quotations,  the  only  specimen  used  being  the 
"  Slavsya,"  which  serves  as  a  motive  for  Ivan  and 
which  is  coupled  towards  the  close  of  the  opera,  when 
his  choice  of  a  bride  is  announced,  with  the  theme  by 
which  he  is  represented  in  "  The  Maid  of  Pskof,"  an 
allusion  which  recalls  the  self-quotings  of  Strauss  and 
his  advocate  Shaw. 

As  to  "Servilia"  and  "Pan  Voyevoda,"  little 
need  be  said.  In  both  cases  the  literary  interest  is 
chiefly  dramatic.  In  the  matter  of  construction  the 
one  is  as  declamatory  as  the  other  is  lyrical ;  the  degree 
of  deviation  is  common,  both  leaning,  as  it  were, 
inwardly,  or  slightly  towards  the  synthetic  style. 

*  It  was  furnished  by  the  composer  with  a  "  concert  - 
ending." 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  93 


VII. 

Nothing  could  better  warrant  the  description  of 
Rimsky-Korsakof  as  an  "  enlightened  liberal  "  than 
his  operatic  creations.  In  it  is  reflected  the  mind  of  a 
man  clearly  determined  that  everything  that  could 
legitimately  claim  the  attention  of  a  composer  should 
find  a  place  in  music-drama.  Yet  while  acting  gener- 
ously toward  the  operatic  art — -repudiating  the 
austere  purism  of  the  "  New  Russian  School  " — he 
was  withal  fastidious  in  his  choice  of  material.  But 
the  special  distinction  of  his  dramatic  work  would  seem 
to  lie  in  that  he  beautified  the  whole  not  only  by  his 
treatment  of  the  parts,  but  by  the  application  of  an 
unfailing  instinct  for  appropriate  combinations  of 
material. 

His  texts  are  unvaryingly  sound.  That  of  "  Sadko," 
derived  from  a  number  of  chronicles  of  an  archaic 
period  and  strung  together  by  the  composer,*  gives 
some  indication  of  the  standard  required  of  a  libretto 
by  the  artist  who  arranged  it.  In  Bielsky,  the  libret- 
tist of  "Tsar  Saltan,"  "  Kitej,"  and  "The  Golden 
Cockerel,"  Rimsky-Korsakof  found  a  collaborator 
entirely  after  his  own  heart.  Between  them  there 
was  a  strong  personal  and  artistic  sympathy.  The 
quality  of  Bielsky's  work  may  be  appreciated  by  any- 
one reading  the  texts  of  the  three  operas  named ;  they 
are  well  worth  the  reading  for  their  own  sake.  Yet 

*  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  assisted  by  Bielsky. 


94  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

we  know  from  the  composer  that  he  was  not  prepared 
to  sacrifice  any  musical  idea  for  the  sake  of  his  texts. 
"In  an  opera,"  reads  the  concluding  sentence  in  the 
preface  to  "  Sadko,"  "  the  rhythm  of  the  poetry  must 
be  made  to  conform  to  the  rhythm  of  the  music,  and 
not  the  inverse." 

His  employment  of  folk-music  was  particularly 
felicitous.  Having  often  (to  use  his  own  phrase) 
listened  to  the  voice  of  the  People,  he  eventually 
acquired  the  power  of  incorporating  not  merely  the 
substance  of  their  utterance,  but  its  manner,  in  the 
music  of  his  operas. 

When  reading  the  views  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  upon 
musico-dramatic  construction,  one  creates  for  oneself 
the  idea  of  an  orchestra  that  plays  a  subordinate  part 
in  the  scheme.  But,  important  as  would  seem  in 
comparison  the  role  assigned  to  Wagner's  orchestra, 
the  symphonic  interest  in  the  Russian  composer's 
operas  is  fairly  abundant.  The  German  makes  of  the 
orchestra  a  window  through  which  we  may  peep  into 
his  soul.  The  Slav's  window  affords  us  a  glimpse  of 
Nature's  world,  and  our  eye  seems  to  penetrate  into 
its  hidden  secrets. 

Even  in  assigning  pre-eminence  to  the  voice,  he 
never  for  a  moment  reverts  to  the  heresies  of  the  purely 
vocal  opera.  In  such  operas  as  "  Sadko  "  and  "  The 
Golden  Cockerel,"  and  in  the  opera-ballet  "  Mlada," 
there  are  some  quite  florid  vocal  passages,  but  colora- 
tura is  here  employed  as  a  means  of  securing  an  appro- 
priate fantastic  expression  for  a  given  character.  In 


AS  OPERATIC  COMPOSER  95 

his  Memoirs,  Rimsky-Korsakof  refers  to  two  eminent 
singers  who  approached  him  with  the  suggestion  that 
he  might  compose  an  opera  "for  us."  His  manner 
of  recording  the  incident  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  his 
views  regarding  the  function  of  the  singer  in  Opera. 

Rimsky-Korsakof  has,  in  short,  enriched  the  form 
of  Opera  without  sacrificing  the  dignity  of  the  art. 
He  has  achieved  far  more  than  the  establishment  in 
Russia  of  an  Opera  positively  pregnant  with  nation- 
alism. The  series  of  operas  constituting  his  legacy 
to  the  lyric  stage  is  a  document  which,  combining  all 
the  approved  elements  of  music-drama,  creates  by 
their  fusion  something  altogether  unique. 


PART  III 

INSTRUMENTAL  AND  VOCAL  COMPOSITIONS 

I. 

THE  orchestral  and,  for  the  most  part,  the  chamber 
music  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  reveals  that  as  a  nationalist 
composer  he  was  not  entirely  dependent  upon  the 
stage.  In  several  of  his  orchestral  works  he  used 
folk- tunes  as  a  thematic  basis.  The  Andante  of  the 
First  Symphony,  written  during  his  stay  in  England, 
the  themes  of  the  Russian  and  Easter  Overtures,  and 
of  the  "  Sinfonietta,"  are  all  from  an  autochthonous 
source;  the  "Serbian  Fantasia"  and  the  "Spanish 
Caprice  "  have  a  special  interest  as  a  manifestation  of 
a  nationalism  that  begins  at  home  but  does  not  end 
there.  As  for  "  Antar  "  and  "  Sheherazade,"  they 
are  a  very  definite  avowal  of  the  influence  of  the  near- 
Orient  upon  the  Russian  artist;  and  as  this  influence 
has  flowed  through  the  Caucasian  channel,  and  has 
been  widely  assimilated  by  Russian  poets,  painters, 
and  musicians,  there  would  appear  to  be  sufficient 
reason  for  considering  the  Oriental  design  and  colouring 
of  such  works  as  Balakiref's  "  Islamey  "  and 
"  Tamara,"  and  the  two  descriptive  orchestral  pieces 
referred  to  above,  as  properly  national. 

96 


INSTRUMENTAL  COMPOSITIONS  97 

In  "  The  Tale,"  and  the  symphonic  picture  "  Sadko," 
the  procedure  is  rather  more  subtle.  They  have  a 
Russian  programme,  but  the  music  plays  a  suggestive 
part.  No  folk-tunes  are  employed,  but  the  melodies 
are  thoroughly  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  the 
programme.  There  is  a  curious  resemblance  between 
the  themes  which,  in  each  case,  appear  to  represent 
the  narratival  thread. 

It  is  not,  however,  permissible  in  this  instance  to 
speak  of  programme  without  an  explanation  that  both 
in  "  The  Tale  "  and  "  Sheherazade,"  as  well  as  in 
"  Sadko,"  the  programmatic  material  is  not  described 
in  the  music,  but  is  only  suggested  by  it.  With  the 
exception  of  that  representing  Sheherazade's  introduc- 
tion to  the  stories  told  by  her  to  the  Sultan — the 
passage  serving  as  a  link — there  are  no  really  definite 
thematic  associations  in  the  work.  The  mission  of  the 
music  is  limited  to  a  suggestion  of  the  atmosphere  of 
the  "Arabian  Nights."*  Similarly  in  "The  Tale," 
which  is  based  on  Pushkin's  prologue  to  "  Russian  and 
Ludmilla,"  the  music  does  not  refer  to  the  literary 
material  of  Glinka's  second  opera,  but  merely  suggests 
that  a  fairy  story  is  being  told  by  the  miraculous 
chained  cat,  which  feline  fabulist  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  story  of  "  Russian  and  Ludmilla  "  as  does 
the  indefatigable  Sheherazade  to  the  "Arabian  Nights.'' 

*  Annotations  communicated  by  the  composer  sanction 
the  association  of  certain  passages  in  "  Sheherazade  "  with 
episodes  in  the  "  Arabian  Nights,"  but  in  such  instances  the 
music  is  for  the  most  part  symbolical  rather  than  descriptive. 

7 


98  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that,  as  an 
orchestral  composer,  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  influenced 
in  no  small  degree  by  Glinka,  particularly  in  the  matter 
of  literary,  poetic,  and  thematic  content.  "  The  Tale," 
the  "Russian  Overture"  and  "Sinfonietta,"  and  the 
"  Spanish  Caprice  "  are  sufficiently  eloquent  testimony. 
The  distinctively  Russian  device — accompanimental 
variation  of  an  unvarying  melody,  as  in  "  Sadko,"  is 
also  the  legacy  of  Glinka. 

Like  Glinka's,  Rimsky-Korsakof  s  orchestral  output 
had  humble  beginnings.  Thus,  when  writing  his  first 
symphony,  he  was  guided  by  a  study  of  Glinka's 
scores,  and  used  Berlioz'  famous  Treatise  on  Instru- 
mentation as  a  prop. 

He  admits  having  had  no  clear  idea  of  the  distinction 
between  the  old-fashioned  "  natural  "  brass  instru- 
ments, and  the  modern  valve  or  chromatic  variety, 
then  more  or  less  a  novelty.  He  was  not  able  to  rely 
very  much  upon  the  assistance  of  his  musical  guide 
and  philosopher,  Balakiref,  whose  knowledge  in  this 
department  was  sparse.  His  own  confession — viz., 
that  he  was  attempting  to  run  ere  having  learned  to 
walk — would  appear  suitably  to  describe  the  circum- 
stances of  his  early  symphonic  progress.  In  course 
of  time,  however,  when  presented  with  some  golden 
opportunities  of  improving  his  technical  knowledge, 
he  availed  himself  of  them  with  the  same  earnestness 
as  characterized  his  studies  in  the  technique  of  com- 
position, succeeding  eventually  in  attaining  a  mastery 
that  was  not  excelled  by  any  of  his  contemporaries. 


INSTRUMENTAL  COMPOSITIONS  99 

But  apart  from  this  mastery — and  the  word  is 
inadequate,  since  it  implies  merely  the  dexterous 
employment  of  traditional  material  in  an  orthodox 
and  approved  fashion — Rimsky-Korsakof  must  be 
credited  with  the  introduction  of  a  new  treatment  of 
the  orchestra.  He  is  responsible  for  a  number  of 
innovations  in  the  region  of  instrumental  grouping, 
and  to  his  influence  and  teaching  must  be  attributed 
the  foundation  of  a  distinct  style  of  orchestration 
usually  referred  to  as  "  Russian."* 

By  his  generous  recognition  of  the  units  of  an 
orchestra  he  has  rendered  a  service  which  instru- 
mentalists are  not  slow  to  acknowledge.  In  "  Sheher- 
azade,"  "  Sidko,"  the  "  Spanish  Caprice,"  and  the 
"  Serbian  Fantasia  "  he  has  made  a  feature  of  the 
instrumental  solo,  as  though  striving  to  show  of  what 
stuff  the  orchestral  body  consists  and  of  what  its  units 
are  separately  capable.  Thus  in  the  "  Spanish 
Caprice,"  in  which  there  are  solo  passages  for  all  the 
melodic  instruments,  the  composer.has  allowed  even  the 
"  percussion  "  to  be  heard  alone  (scena  e  canto  gitano), 
a  procedure  that  would  appear  sufficiently  rare. 
Another  effect  that  seems  to  belong  entirely  to  this 
composer  is  that  heard  in  "  The  Tale,"  where 

*  On  more  than  one  occasion  Rimsky-Korsakof  asserted 
that  orchestration  should  be  considered  as  part  of  the  process 
of  composition.  Writing  in  1904  to  an  acquaintance,  he 
declined  to  accept  a  proffered  congratulation  on  the  alleged 
completion  of  his  "  Kitej."  "...  Its  full  score  alone  is  the 
finished  form  of  an  orchestral  composition." 


100  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

the  violins  in  three  groups  play  a  series  of  brilliant 
chords  that  sound  as  though  coming  from  one 
instrument. 

The  achievement  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  in  this  direc- 
tion is  twofold.  By  means  of  such  works  as  are  here 
mentioned  he  has  insisted  on  a  high  standard  of 
orchestral  playing,  and  following  the  lead  of  Glinka, 
who  wrote  his  orchestral  fantasias  for  this  very  pur- 
pose, he  has  added  to  the  symphonic  repertory  a  series 
of  works  that  will  at  one  and  the  same  time  appeal  to 
the  sophisticated,  and  afford  instruction  and  enter- 
tainment to  the  large  public  that  listens  to  music  but 
does  not  indulge  in  any  closer  form  of  study. 


II. 

In  the  composer's  view  his  most  important  orches- 
tral works  are  roughly  divisible  into  two  categories. 
In  the  first  he  places  the  symphonic  picture  "  Sadko," 
"  The  Tale,"  and  the  "  Easter  Overture."  "  Antar  " 
and  the  much  later  work  "  Sheherazade "  are,  he 
says,  doubly  akin,  for  they  are  both  symphonic  suites 
and  both  Oriental  in  character.  With  "  Sheherazade  " 
and  the  "  Easter  Overture  "  he  links  the  "  Spanish 
Caprice  "  as  representing  his  attainment  of  maturity 
in  the  region  of  orchestral  creation.  The  last  work 
he  refers  to  as  having  been  influenced  by  Glinka ;  this 
is  of  course  quite  obvious.  What  might  perhaps 
escape  the  superficial  observer  is  that  both  "  Sadko  " 
and  "Antar"  owe  something  to  Liszt's  "Mephisto 


INSTRUMENTAL  COMPOSITIONS         101 

Valse,"  a  work  which  has  more  recently  accounted 
for  a  stage  in  the  evolution  of  Skryabin's  art.  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  makes  an  open  avowal  of  his  indebtedness, 
and  does  not  seek  to  conceal  that  what  he  might  have 
preferred  to  regard  as  emulation  is  in  reality  more  in 
the  nature  of  imitation. 

Having  often  expressed  quite  freely  his  opinion  of 
his  initial  essays  in  composition  he  causes  no  surprise 
when,  in  respect  of  "  Antar,"  he  takes  posterity  into 
his  confidence  and  gives  a  full  and  frank  account  of 
its  origins  and  influences.  The  Antar  theme  was 
invented,  he  says,  under  the  influence  of  Cui's  opera 
''William  Ratcliff";*  another  passage  reflects  the 
manner  of  Glinka's  Persian  Chorus  ("  Russian  and 
Ludmilla  "),  while  the  triplet  accompaniment  to  the 
Antar  theme  owes  something  to  Serof's  "  Rogneda." 
The  A  major  episode  of  the  third  movement,  like  the 
F  sharp  major  melody  of  the  first  (f).  was  taken 
from  a  French  collection  of  Arab  tunes,  lent  him  by 
Borodin,  and  the  principal  theme  of  the  fourth  move- 
ment was  harmonized  and  given  him  by  Dargomijsky, 
who  extracted  it  from  Christianovich's  compilation. 
Even  the  Gul-Nazar  theme,  which  the  composer  once 
thought  to  be  original,  has  since  proved  to  be  practically 
identical  with  a  specimen  of  Arab  popular  song  quoted 

*  Ivanof ,  the  historian,  calls  attention  to  other  thematic 
loans,  and  cites  the  resemblance  between  the  passage  in  which 
Catarina  (in  Cui's  "Angelo")  resigns  herself  to  a  death  by 
poison,  and  the  music  accompanying  the  Snow-Maiden's 
dissolution. 


102  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

in  Fetis's  Encyclopaedia.  This  circumstance  the  com- 
poser attributed  to  unconscious  assimilation.  After 
all  this  frankness  we  are  not  disposed  to  deny  Rimsky- 
Korsakof's  claim  that  "  Antar,"  in  view  of  his  in- 
experience at  the  time  of  its  creation,  displays  an 
astonishing  mastery  in  the  handling  of  the  various 
themes. 

A  similar  indebtedness  manifests  itself  in  the  thematic 
content  of  "  Sadko."  In  the  passage  describing  Sadko's 
immersion  is  a  reminiscence  of  Ludmilla's  abduction, 
the  whole-tone  scale  by  which  Glinka  depicted  his 
heroine's  captor  Chernomor  being  here  replaced  by  the 
progression  of  alternate  tones  and  semitones  after- 
wards employed  by  Rimsky-Korsakof  in  "  The  Tale," 
"Antar"  (third  movement),  and  in  the  operatic  works 
"  The  Maid  of  Pskof  "  and  "  Mlada."  Harmonically 
also  there  are  suggestions  of  outside  influence,  notably 
that  of  Liszt. 

III. 

On  the  question  of  "  programme  "  the  composer  gives 
some  idea  of  his  intentions  when  dealing  with  "  The 
Tale."  It  is,  he  says,  to  be  considered  as  "  abstract  " 
music.  But  it  has,  nevertheless,  a  definite  association 
with  Pushkin's  Prologue,  which  is  established  by 
means  of  certain  symbolical  points  d'appui  such  as  the 
trombone  solo,  in  which  we  are  right  in  seeing  a  musical 
representation  of  Baba-Yaga,  and  the  flute  passage 
(Allegro)  which  does  duty  as  a  description,  or  rather,  a 
suggestion,  of  the  russalki.  These  figures  belong,  as 


INSTRUMENTAL  COMPOSITIONS         103 

the  composer  points  out,  to  Pushkin,  but  he  clearly 
warns  the  listener  not  to  expect  their  presence  to  form 
part  of  a  literal  rendering  in  musical  terms  of  the 
celebrated  Prologue. 

Coming  to  "  Sheherazade  "  we  are  vouchsafed  a 
definite  indication  of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  attitude  to- 
wards the  programmatic  element  in  music.  The 
characteristic  melodies  and  figures  in  this  work  are 
not,  he  asserts,  to  be  regarded  as  leading-motives,  and 
in  order  to  dispel  any  illusion  to  the  contrary  he  calls 
attention  to  such  instances  as  the  trumpet  call  which 
is  made  to  serve  as  the  representation  of  two  quite 
distinct  ideas.  And  now  he  delivers  himself  of  a  state- 
ment that  clears  up  any  misapprehension  on  the  point. 
The  musical  content  of  "  Sheherazade  "  is  designed 
to  give  a  general  impression  of  its  literary  basis :  when 
inserting  the  titles  to  his  movements  (they  were  sub- 
sequently discarded),  his  intention  was  that  of  giving 
a  lead  to  the  listener,  to  indicate  the  channel  through 
which  the  composer's  imagination  had  flowed  when 
writing  the  music.  It  should  be  observed,  in  conclusion, 
that  this  programmatic  vagueness  is  not  to  be  con- 
strued as  an  excuse  for  the  employment  of  Rimsky- 
Korsakof's  music  as  the  orchestral  accompaniment 
of  a  Ballet  of  which  the  story  has  little  or  nothing  in 
common  with  that  which  inspired  our  composer  ! 

In  the  literary  basis  of  the  "  Easter  Overture  "  we 
get  a  glimpse  of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  spiritual  outlook 
and  observe  once  more  his  inclination  towards  pan- 
theism. In  this  work  he  has  sought  to  emphasize 


104  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

the  contrast  between  the  orthodox  celebration  of 
festivals  and  the  pagan  rites  in  which  they  originated. 
Even  the  bell  music  in  which  he  reproduces  the  sounds 
he  heard  as  a  boy,  when  he  lived  near  the  Tikhvin 
Monastery,  evokes  from  him  an  idea  which  would  hardly 
commend  itself  to  the  conventionally  devout :  he  pre- 
fers to  regard  it  as  a  species  of  instrumental  dance- 
music,  sanctioned  by  the  orthodox  Russian  Church. 
The  orchestral  figure  employed  to  describe  the  bells 
appears  again  in  the  Prelude  "  At  the  Grave,"  composed 
on  the  death  of  Belayef . 

Reference  to  the  bell-sound — one  of  the  most 
popular  of  the  devices  drawn  upon  by  Russian  nation- 
alist composers — recalls  the  quip  attributed  to  Cui, 
who  declared  that  Korsakof's  instrumentation  of  the 
chimes  in  "  Boris  "  sounded  more  like  the  original 
than  the  original  itself.  This  paradoxical  remark 
would  appear  to  characterize  the  composer  of  "  Antar  " 
and  "  Sheherazade  "  as  a  master  of  the  orchestra. 
When  writing  symphonic  music  he  thought  in  orches- 
tral terms;  he  strove  continuously  to  perfect  himself 
in  his  handling  of  the  medium,  incurring  among  critics 
an  allegation  that  he  was  obsessed  by  a  mania  for 
"  polish."  This,  in  reality,  was  no  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  importance  of  a  complete  orchestral 
mastery,  but  simply  the  outcome  of  a  desire  that  the 
symphonic  expression  of  any  particular  idea  should 
be  something  more  than  a  mere  version,  that  it  should 
be  not  only  the  music's  most  expressive  form  but  an 
integral  part  of  the  music  itself. 


INSTRUMENTAL  COMPOSITIONS          105 


IV. 

Beyond  his  solicitude  for  the  individual  instrument, 
the  chamber  music  of  Rimsky-Korsakof  does  not 
afford  any  great  interest.  Considering  the  extent  to 
which — in  his  symphonic  creations — the  composer 
relies  upon  effects  of  colour,  it  is  surprising  that,  in 
his  works  for  string  combinations,  he  does  not  strive, 
like  his  compatriot  Tchaikovsky  and  many  another 
composer  of  modern  times,  after  orchestral  effects. 
On  the  contrary,  the  manner  of  his  first  essay,  the 
string  quartet  in  F,  a  work  written  more  or  less  as 
an  exercise  in  which  to  test  himself  after  his  studies 
in  counterpoint,  is  repeated  in  the  majority  of  his 
subsequent  works  of  the  kind.  The  interest  is  chiefly 
melodic,  for  the  contrapuntal  efforts  of  the  quartet, 
culminating  in  an  ingenious  though  only  partially 
successful  Finale,  are  hardly  improved  upon  in  the 
posthumously  published  string  sextet,  in  which  there 
are  two  highly  complicated  movements,  a  rondo  fugato 
and  a  scherzo.  And  unfortunately,  apart  from  the 
movements  that  are  in  the  folk-style,  there  is  an  absence 
of  melodic  charm. 

In  the  series  of  collaborative  chamber  works,  which 
are  so  interesting  a  feature  of  Russian  music,  Rimsky- 
Korsakof  shows  himself  capable  of  carrying  out  his 
share  in  the  programme.  The  Allegro  for  the  string 
quartet  on  the  theme  B-La-F,  dedicated  to  the  great 
Russian  musical  patron,  is  an  eminently  suitable 


106  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

movement ;  while  the  concluding  Khorovod  in  the  work 
which  celebrates  Belayef 's  birthday  is  full  of  a  gaiety 
that  reminds  one  of  the  music  in  the  festive  sections 
of  "  Sadko  "  and  "  The  Golden  Cockerel."  To  the 
;t  Vendredis  "  series,  a  number  of  little  pieces  com- 
posed by  the  personnel  of  Belay ef's  celebrated  musical 
Friday  evenings,  Rimsky-Korsakof  contributed  the 
initial  Allegro  of  the  second  volume,  a  movement  that 
is  successful  if  considered  in  relation  to  its  context, 
but  is  not  in  any  way  likely  to  add  to  its  composer's 
reputation. 

In  referring  to  his  early  essays  in  chamber  music, 
Rimsky-Korsakof  excuses  their  shortcomings  by  ex- 
plaining that  his  technical  education  was  then  incom- 
plete and  that  the  contrapuntal  manner  had  not  yet 
entered  into  his  being.  But  to  judge  by  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  specimens  he  has  left,  one  prefers  to  assume 
that  chamber  music  was  not  his  metier.  The  art  of 
the  composer  of  "  Mlada  "  only  attained  its  highest 
level  when  he  was  able  to  work  on  material  that 
allowed  of  his  using  a  large  canvas,  on  which  either 
broad  splashes  of  colour  or  a  multitude  of  widely 
varied  effects  could  be  employed.  Rimsky-Korsakof 
was  a  musician  whose  gift  lay  in  the  region  of  the 
descriptive.  He  was  inspired  by  his  own  lively  appre- 
ciation of  his  subject.  Of  this  his  orchestral  and 
operatic  works  are  a  sufficient  proof;  his  chamber 
music  is  an  endorsement. 


INSTRUMENTAL  COMPOSITIONS         107 


V. 

The  solo-instrumental  examples  do  not  call  for  a 
modification  of  this  verdict.  The  piano  concerto, 
which  is  apparently  the  fruit  of  Lisztian  influence,  has 
in  some  quarters  been  acclaimed  as  a  work  that 
worthily  bears  its  dedication  to  the  great  pianist;  but 
the  circumstance  of  its  having  been  conceived  as  a 
specimen  of  cyclic  construction  has  not  endowed  it 
with  any  superlative  merit  as  music,  and  it  must  at 
this  date  be  considered  as  music  belonging  to  a  given 
moment,  depending  upon  its  association  with  the  con- 
dition of  musical  affairs  at  that  moment  for  its  interest. 

A  violin  fantasia  on  two  Russian  airs  possesses  no 
importance  whatsoever.  Those  experienced  in  Russian 
music  will  possibly  marvel  that,  with  such  a  wealth 
of  folk-melody  at  the  disposal  of  Russian  composers, 
the  same  tune  should  have  appeared  in  this,  in  the 
"  Vendredis,"  and  "  Variations  "  quartet  collections. 

Rimsky-Korsakof's  contributions  to  the  "  Para- 
phrases "  or  "  Chopsticks  "  series  show  him  to  possess 
a  greater  fertility  of  imagination,  but  far  less  charm 
of  manner,  than  those  accomplished  miniaturists 
Lyadof  and  Cui.  The  tonal  scale  in  the  bass  of  one 
of  the  variations  appears  to  be  the  only  instance  of 
its  employment  by  a  Russian  composer  in  music  of  a 
cheerful  kind  ! 

Rimsky-Korsakof's  choral  works  have  not  met  with 
any  great  success. 


1 08  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

"  Svitezyanka,"  "The  Doom  of  Oleg  "  (based  on 
Pushkin's  poem),  a  setting  of  the  same  poet's  "  Upas 
Tree,"  and  the  revolutionary  song  "  Doubinoushka," 
prompted  by  the  events  of  1905,  have  all  been  per- 
formed in  Russia.  Their  failure  is  ascribed  by  their 
composer  to  a  want  of  interest  in  such  compositions, 
the  solo-vocalists  preferring  to  present  themselves  in 
purely  solo  examples,  and  the  chorus  in  exclusively 
choral  works,  while  the  publisher  shows  a  distaste 
for  material  that  is  not  bought  by  the  public  !  It 
may  be  safely  conjectured  that  a  Russian  orchestra 
would  prefer  to  be  heard  in  such  indulgent  numbers 
as  "  Sheherazade  "  or  the  "  Spanish  Caprice." 

The  choice  of  "  The  Doom  of  Oleg  "  for  the  New- 
castle-on-Tyne  Festival  of  1909  was  probably  a  mani- 
festation of  the  very  different  state  of  affairs  prevailing 
in  this  country. 


VI. 

An  examination  of  Rimsky-Korsakof's  songs  forces 
one  to  the  adoption  of  two  conclusions :  that  his  best 
work  in  this  region  was  done  at  the  beginning  of  his 
career,  at  which  time  his  vocal  writing  seems  to  have 
suffered  little  from  his  ignorance  of  technique,  and  to 
have  gained  much  as  the  first  flow  of  a  not  too  abundant 
lyrical  inspiration;  and  secondly  that  the  composer 
reached  his  highest  level  in  song- writing  when  affecting 
the  Eastern  idiom.  Thus  the  Oriental  Romance 
(from  op.  2)  was  never  excelled,  and,  if  equalled,  its 


VOCAL  COMPOSITIONS  109 

peers  are  to  be  found  in  such  examples  as  "  The  Hills 
of  Georgia,"  "The  Fir  Tree  and  the  Palm"  (from 
op.  3),  and  in  the  much  later  song,  "  I  Love  Thee, 
0  Moon  "  (from  op.  41),  in  which  an  Indian  reminis- 
cence is  clearly  responsible  for  the  happy  melodic 
inspiration.  The  last-named  specimen  stands  out 
from  a  number  of  songs  in  which  the  glorified  accom- 
paniment provides  an  interest  far  superior  to  that  of 
the  vocal  line. 

It  is  assumed  by  one  of  the  foremost  Russian  critics 
that  Rimsky-Korsakof  was  too  often  inclined  to  regard 
his  songs  as  studies  for  operatic  writing,  and  this  seems 
probable  when  one  reads  between  the  lines  of  his 
Memoirs.  But  this  does  not  account  for  the  tendency, 
noticeable  in  the  composer's  vocal  works,  to  exalt  (as 
Cui  puts  it  in  his  disquisition  "Russian  Song")  the 
accessory  at  the  expense  of  the  essential.  The  accom- 
paniment in  Rimsky-Korsakof's  songs,  says  Cui,  bears 
the  same  relation  to  the  melody  as  does  a  handsome 
frame  to  an  insignificant  picture.  For  this  reason 
vocalists  have  neglected  the  greater  part  of  his  consider- 
able contribution  to  their  repertory.  Among  his 
songs  are  some  exceedingly  worthy  specimens  of 
descriptive  music,  such,  for  instance,  as  "  The  Nymph  " 
(op.  56),  but  the  singer  is  not  likely  to  be  satisfied  in 
figuring  as  a  pretext  for  the  performance  of  a  beautiful 
accompaniment. 

"  Some  of  his  songs  and  their  accompaniments 
remind  me,"  aptly  remarks  Mrs.  Newmarch  in  "  The 
Russian  Opera,"  "  of  those  sixteenth-century  portraits 


110  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

in  which  some  slim,  colourless,  but  distinguished 
Infanta  is  gowned  in  a  robe  of  brocade  rich  enough  to 
stand  by  itself,  without  the  negative  aid  of  the  wearer." 
But  in  dealing  with  such  a  song  as  "  The  Nymph,"  we 
have  to  substitute  Cui's  metaphor  of  the  ornate  frame 
for  the  slender  subject. 

Rimsky-Korsakof  was,  as  we  know,  richly  endowed 
with  the  musico-descriptive  faculty,  and  had  a  very 
correct  notion  of  the  vocal  tessitura.  Had  he  possessed 
in  the  samejmeasure  a  lyrical  gift,  his  songs  would 
surely  have  been  unsurpassed. 


OPERATIC  SYNOPSES 

THE  MAID  OF  PSKOF 
In  Three  Acts  and  Four  Tableaux. 

IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE,  desirous  of  removing  the  autonomous 
power  hitherto  the  prerogative  of  the  city  of  Pskof,  descends 
with  his  army  upon  its  people.  But  discovering  that  the 
adopted  daughter  of  the  Governor  is  the  child  of  Vera  Sheloga, 
whom  many  years  before  he  had  himself  betrayed,  he  is 
impelled  to  act  with  clemency. 

A  NIGHT  IN  MAY 
In  Three  Acts  and  Four  Tableaux. 

Near  a  Little- Russian  village  stands,  at  the  lakeside,  a 
haunted  house.  Here,  according  to  legend,  there  dwelt  a 
Pole,  whose  second  marriage  brought  upon  his  daughter  a 
stepmother's  hatred.  Despair  drives  the  girl  to  drown 
herself.  Becoming  a  "  russalka,"  she  contrives  to  lure  her 
enemy  into  the  water,  but  the  stepmother,  now  one  of  many 
water-nymphs,  can  no  longer  be  identified. 

This  story  is  told  by  Levko,  the  son  of  the  village  Head- 
man, to  Hanna,  his  betrothed.  His  father,  a  rival,  refuses 
his  consent  to  their  union.  Levko,  overhearing  the  addresses 
paid  by  the  Headman  to  Hanna,  prevails  upon  some  friends 
to  "  bait "  his  father.  The  Headman,  incensed  by  an  uproar 
outside  his  house,  rushes  out,  and  in  the  dark  incarcerates 
his  sister-in-law,  whom  he  mistakes  for  the  ringleader.  He 
then  discovers  that  his  son  is  to  blame,  and  hurries  off  in 
search  of  the  culprit.  The  same  night  Levko,  singing  before 

111 


112  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

the  haunted  house,  is  requested  by  the  Pannochka  (Polish) 
russalka  to  establish  the  identity  of  her  stepmother,  and, 
succeeding,  is  rewarded  with  a  letter,  apparently  in  the  hand- 
writing of  a  high  official,  commanding  the  Headman  to  ex- 
pedite the  marriage  of  his  son  with  Hanna. 


THE  SNOW-MAIDEN 
In  Four  Acts  and  a  Prologue. 

Sniegourochka,  the  daughter  of  Frost  and  Spring,  is  deaf 
to  her  parents'  warning,  and  resolves  to  leave  her  woodland 
solitude  and  to  seek  the  companionship  of  mortals.  Her 
numb  heart  is  warmed  by  the  songs  of  Lei,  the  shepherd, 
but  her  inclination  for  him  meets  with  no  response,  for  Lei 
is  in  love  with  Koupava.  She  is  the  affianced  of  Mizguir, 
a  Tatar,  and  in  his  breast  Sniegourochka  kindles  so  fierce  a 
flame  of  passion  that  he  deserts  his  betrothed.  Sniegourochka, 
bewildered  by  the  vagaries  of  Cupid,  returns  to  her  mother, 
who,  in  maternal  solicitude,  bestows  upon  her  ill-fated  child 
the  power  of  human  love.  But  no  sooner  does  the  Snow- 
Maiden  utter,  at  the  dictates  of  her  newly  awakened  sensi- 
bility, an  avowal  of  love  for  Mizguir.  than  a  ray  of  the  warm 
spring  sun  falls  upon  her  and  she  floats  to  Heaven  in  a  vapour. 

MLADA 

Opera-Ballet,  in  Four  Acts  and  an  Apotheosis. 

Mstivoi,  Prince  of  Ehetra,  having  designs  upon  the  neigh- 
bouring principality  of  Arkonsk,  has  caused  his  daughter, 
Voislava,  to  present  to  Mlada,  the  bride  of  Yaromir,  its  ruler, 
a  poisoned  ring.  Not  caring  to  depend  upon  her  own  charms 
for  the  captivation  of  the  bereaved  Yaromir,  now  expected 
as  a  visitor  to  her  father's  palace,  Voislava  invokes  the  aid  of 
the  inferral  goddess  Morena,  who,  unknown  to  the  former,  has 
taken  the  earthly  shape  of  her  nurse,  and  has  herself  suggested 
this  step.  Yaromir  conceives  a  passion  for  Voislava  which 


OPERATIC  SYNOPSES  113 

even  survives  a  dream  in  which  the  cause  of  his  bride's  death  is 
revealed,  but  so  surely  as  he  attempts  to  embrace  his  consoler 
the  Shade  of  Mlada  intervenes,  and  ultimately  succeeds  in 
carrying  him  off.  Keturning,  he  kills  Voislava,  whose  soul 
descends  to  Hades  with  Morena. 


CHRISTMAS  EVE  REVELS 
In  Four  Acts  and  Nine  Tableaux. 

Solokha,  a  witch,  has  taken  a  fancy  to  the  elderly  Cossack 
Choub,  but  is  greatly  hampered  by  her  son  Vakoula's  courtship 
of  Oxana,  the  Cossack's  daughter.  Anticipating  that  during 
Choub's  visit  to  the  Sacristan  there  will  be  a  meeting  between 
the  lovers,  Solokha  arranges  with  the  Devil,  whose  ire  has  beei> 
aroused  by  a  caricature  drawn  by  Vakoula  on  the  wall  of  the 
village  church,  to  steal  the  moon  and  stars.  In  the  darkness 
Choub,  travelling  in  a  circle,  arrives  back  home  and  is  refused 
admittance  by  Vakoula,  who  imagines  him  to  be  a  rival. 
Meanwhile,  Oxana  accepts  Vakoula  on  condition  that  he  wiU 
secure  for  her  a  pair  of  the  Empress's  shoes.  Nothing  daunted. 
Vakoula  seeks  the  Imperial  Presence,  and  is  duly  rewarded, 
first  with  the  shoes,  and  then  by  his  lady's  favour. 


SADKO 
Opera-Legend  in  Seven  Tableaux. 

Sadko,  a  poor  but  spirited  minstrel,  wagers  his  head  against 
the  wealth  of  the  Novgorod  merchants  that  he  will  catch 
golden  fish  in  the  neighbouring  Lake  Ilmen.  Aided  by  the 
Sea-King's  daughter  he  wins,  and  embarks  upon  a  voyage 
on  one  of  the  fleet  of  ships  that  have  become  his.  Overtaken 
by  storm,  it  is  decided  by  the  ship's  company  that  one  of 
their  number  must  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  Sea- King. 
Lots  are  drawn,  with  the  result  that  Sadko  finds  himself  on 
a  plank  in  mid-ocean. 

8 


114  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Entering  the  Sea-King's  domain,  he  plays  upon  his  gusli 
with  such  goodwill  that  the  monarch  and  his  court  are  soon 
engaged  in  a  frenzied  dance.  A  fierce  gale  ensues.  St. 
Nicholas,  intervening  on  behalf  of  seafarers  above,  dashes 
the  gusli  to  the  ground,  orders  Sadko  home,  and  transforms 
the  Sea-King's  daughter,  who  has  offered  herself  to  the  already 
married  minstrel,  into  the  river  Volkhof,  on  which  Novgorod 
now  stands. 

MOZART  AND  SALIERI 
Dramatic  Duologue  in  Two  Scenes. 

Salieri,  jealous  of  the  success  of  Mozart,  resolves  upon 
poisoning  him.  He  invites  his  rival  to  a  meal,  during  which 
there  is  a  discussion  as  to  the  possibility  of  genius  and  crime 
being  united  in  one  mind.  Salieri,  having  heard  the  Requiem 
that  Mozart  had  composed  at  the  behest  of  a  mysterious 
stranger,  drops  the  poison  into  his  glass,  and  when  Mozart 
withdraws,  indisposed  but  unconscious  of  the  cause,  is  plunged 
into  remorse,  fearing  that  his  murderous  act  may  signify  that 
he  is  himself  no  genius. 

BOYARINA  VERA  SHELOGA 
Prologue  in  One  Act. 

Vera,  the  wife  of  Ivan  Sheloga,  who  is  absent  at  the  War, 
is  singing  her  child  to  sleep.  Nadejda,  her  sister,  learns  that 
the  child  is  not  Sheloga's,  but  the  mother  refuses  to  divulge 
more  than  that  one  day,  when  on  her  way  to  the  Pechersky 
Monastery,  she  had  become  faint,  and  had  found  herself,  on 
regaining  consciousness,  in  the  tent  of  a  stranger,  who  subse- 
quently visited  her  at  her  home.  Hardly  has  she  finished 
her  story  when  her  husband  returns.  When  he  puts  the 
question,  "  Whose  is  that  child  ?"  Nadejda,  to  shield  her 
sister,  proclaims  herself  the  mother. 

(The  child  is  Olga,  the  Maid  of  Pskof,  her  father  is  Ivan  the 
Terrible.) 


OPERATIC  SYNOPSES  115 

THE  TSAR'S  BRIDE 
In  Three  Acts  and  Four  Tableaux. 

Martha,  the  daughter  of  the  Novgorod  merchant  Sobakin, 
is  to  marry  the  boyard  Lykof ;  but  Gryaznoy,  one  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible's  bodyguard,  has  sworn  that  she  shall  be  his,  and 
obtains  from  Bomely,  the  Tsar's  doctor,  a  potion  with  which 
he  intends  to  destroy  her  memory.  His  discarded  mistress 
Liouba,  aided  by  Bomely,  substitutes  another  concoction  that 
is  to  mar  her  beauty.  This  Martha  drinks.  Meantime,  in 
accordance  with  a  royal  custom,  Ivan  the  Terrible  has  been 
endeavouring  unseen  to  select  a  bride.  His  choice  falls  upon 
Martha.  When  she  hears  from  Gryaznoy  that  Lykof,  her 
betrothed,  has  been  executed  for  attempting  to  poison  her, 
she  loses  her  reason.  Liouba,  confessing  to  her  act,  is  stabbed 
by  Gryaznoy,  who  gives  himself  up  to  justice. 


THE  TALE  OF  TSAR  SALTAN 
In  Four  Acts  and  Seven  Tableaux. 

Tsar  Saltan  overhears  three  sisters  who  are  confiding  to 
each  other  their  views  on  the  subject  of  happiness.  The 
youngest,  having  declared  that  she  would  wish  nothing  better 
than  to  become  the  mother  of  a  hero,  is  chosen  by  Saltan  for 
his  bride.  While  he  is  at  the  War  the  jealous  sisters  plot 
against  the  young  queen,  who  with  her  little  son  is  consigned 
to  the  waves  in  a  barrel,  which  drifts  on  to  an  island.  One 
day  the  Tsarevich,  now  a  sturdy  youth,  saves  a  swan  from 
a  pike  that  is  pursuing  it.  He  is  rewarded  with  magic  powers 
enabling  him  to  build  a  Wonder-City,  over  which  he  is  chosen 
to  reign,  and  the  swan,  having  resumed  her  former  estate  of 
Princess,  consents  to  share  his  throne.  Returning  from  the 
Wars,  Tsar  Saltan  hears  of  the  famous  island,  and  journeying 
thither  is  reunited  with  his  queen. 


116  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

SERVILIA 
In  Five  Acts. 

Servilia,  daughter  of  the  senator  Soranus,  is  desired  by  her 
father  to  contract  an  alliance  with  Trasea,  but  the  latter, 
hearing  of  her  preference  for  his  adopted  son  Valerius,  with- 
draws his  suit.  Egnatiiis,  the  freedman  of  Soranus,  being 
enamoured  of  Servilia,  conspires  against  his  master  and 
Trasea,  and  intimates  to  Servilia  that  her  submission  alone 
will  secure  their  safety.  Valerius  has  mysteriously  disap- 
peared, and  Servilia,  becoming  a  convert  to  Christianity, 
renounces  the  World.  Called  before  the  tribunal,  Trasea  and 
Soranus  are  sentenced  to  banishment,  while  Servilia  is  awarded 
to  Egnatius.  Valerius  now  returns,  bearing  a  proclamation 
from  Nero  that  the  tribunal  is  dissolved.  The  sudden  reap- 
pearance of  her  lover  causes  Servilia's  death,  and  Valerius  is 
only  prevented  from  destroying  himself  by  the  intervention 
of  his  foster-father.  Egnatius,  in  his  woe,  invokes  the  Divine 
Being,  and  the  rest  join  him  in  acclaiming  the  Christian  God. 

KASHCHEI  THE  IMMORTAL 

In  One  Act  and  Three  Tableaux. 

The  beautiful  Tsarevna  is  held  captive  and  spellbound  in 
the  magic  kingdom  of  the  monster  Kashchei,  where  she  hourly 
awaits  deliverance  at  the  hands  of  Ivan  Korolevich,  her  lover. 
The  latter,  seeking  Kashchei's  "death"  (which  according  to 
tradition  is  an  object  that,  once  found,  will  end  the  ogre's 
existence),  is  waylaid  by  Kashcheievna,  Kashchei's  daughter. 
She  prevails  upon  him  to  drink  a  potion,  promising  him  that 
by  this  means  he  will  find  the  sought-for  "  death."  His 
enslaver  is  about  to  kill  him  when  the  benevolent  Burya 
Bogatyr  awakens  the  hero,  and  transports  him  on  a  magic 
carpet  to  Kashchei's  kingdom.  Kashcheievna  makes  a  further 
effort  to  secure  Ivan  for  herself,  promising  him  the  release  of 
his  betrothed ;  and  when  the  latter  gives  expression  to  a  feeling 


OPERATIC  SYNOPSES  117 

of  pity  for  her,  she  weeps.  It  is  in  the  tears  of  his  daughter 
that  Kashchei's  "death"  is  hidden,  and  at  their  flow  his 
kingdom  crumbles  and  the  monster  dies.  The  lovers  regain 
their  freedom,  and  Kashcheievna  is  transformed  into  a  weeping 
willow. 

PAN  VOYEVODA 
In  Four  Acts. 

Maria  Oskolsky  is  in  love  with  Boleslaf  Chaplinsky,  but  is 
coveted  by  Pan  Voyevoda,  who  disregards  her  lover's  claim. 
Yadviga,  who  has  designs  upon  the  Voyevoda,  obtains  from 
a  sorcerer,  Dorosha,  a  poison  which  during  a  banquet  she 
pours  into  Maria's  glass;  but  the  Voyevoda,  drinking  from  it 
in  error,  expires,  and  Chaplinsky,  who  is  lying  under  a  sentence 
of  death,  is  released. 


THE  TALE  OF  THE  INVISIBLE  CITY  KITEJ  AND  THE 
MAIDEN  FEVRONIA 

In  Four  Acts  and  Six  Tableaux. 

While  singing  the  praises  of  Nature  in  a  forest  near  Little 
Kitej,  the  maiden  Fevronia  is  surprised  by  a  stranger,  who 
is  captivated  by  her  beauty  and  obtains  her  consent  to  marry 
him.  On  his  departure,  she  learns  that  he  is  the  son  of  the 
Prince  of  Kitej.  The  city  is  attacked  by  Tatars,  who  have  been 
guided  thence  by  Grishka  Kouterma,  a  drunken  reprobate. 

Fevronia  is  seized  and  carried  off,  praying  that  Kitej  may 
be  saved. 

When  the  Tatars  press  their  attack  the  City  is  rendered 
invisible,  and  its  reflection  is  seen  on  the  surface  of  the 
Lake.  Fevronia  escapes  and,  together  with  the  now  repentant 
Kouterma,  enters  the  forest.  Here  she  is  visited  by  birds  of 
Paradise,  and  the  spirit  of  her  betrothed,  who  has  been  killed. 
Having  eaten  of  the  bread  that  brings  eternal  happiness, 
Fevronia  departs  with  the  spirit.  Kitej  is  restored  to  its 
transfigured  People. 


1 18  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

THE  GOLDEN  COCKEEEL 
In  Three  Acts. 

King  Dodon  takes  counsel  with  his  nobles  in  order  to  devise 
a  means  whereby  the  constant  plotting  of  a  neighbouring 
hostile  ruler  may  be  frustrated.  Ere  a  practicable  scheme 
has  been  evolved,  there  enters  an  Astrologer,  who  proffers 
a  golden  cockerel.  With  the  bird  watching  over  the  city  the 
king  may  sleep;  danger  will  be  sounded  by  a  warning  crow. 
At  the  cockerel's  first  alarm  the  king  despatches  his  two 
sons  to  lead  his  army;  at  the  second  he  decides  to  betake 
himself  to  the  field  of  battle.  The  first  sight  that  meets  his 
gaze  is  that  of  his  two  sons,  who  have  done  each  other  to  death. 
At  dawn  he  perceives  a  tent.  Dodon  and  his  General  mistake 
this  as  belonging  to  the  leader  of  the  opposing  army,  but  to 
their  astonishment  there  emerges  from  it  the  lovely  Queen  of 
Shemakha.  She  completely  infatuates  and  ruthlessly  fools 
the  old  Dodon,  who  finally  asks  her  to  share  his  throne.  On 
their  return  in  state  to  the  capital,  Dodon  is  reminded  by  the 
Astrologer  of  his  promised  token  of  gratitude.  The  king, 
asking  his  price,  is  horrified  by  a  demand  for  the  person  of  his 
bride.  Infuriated,  he  slays  the  Astrologer.  The  queen 
deserts  him,  and  he  is  killed  by  the  golden  beak  of  the  avenging 
cockerel. 

(In  a  brief  Epilogue,  the  Astrologer  returns  to  life  and 
assures  the  spectators  that  only  he  and  the  queen  are  mortals ; 
what  they  have  witnessed  is  but  a  fantasy.) 


SYMPHONIC  SYNOPSES 

ANTAR 

I. 

ANTAR,  having  sworn  eternal  enmity  to  mankind  on  account 
of  the  wrongs  done  him,  has  renounced  human  society  and  has 
sought  the  ruins  of  Palmyra,  a  city  erected  by  the  spirits  of 
darkness.  His  solitary  communings  are  suddenly  interrupted 
by  the  appearance  of  a  slender  and  charming  gazelle;  Antar 
prepares  to  follow,  but  at  this  moment  perceives  that  a  gigantic 
bird  is  pursuing  the  gazelle.  With  his  lance  he  drives  off 
the  winged  monster,  which  flies  away  with  a  piercing  cry. 
The  frail  quarry  has  also  vanished.  Antar,  musing  over  the 
episode,  falls  into  slumber.  In  a  vision  he  sees  himself  trans- 
ported to  the  magnificent  palace  of  the  Queen  of  Palmyra,  the 
fairy  Gul-Nazar;  his  ear  is  enchanted  by  the  song  of  a  bevy 
of  slaves.  The  Queen,  who  is  none  other  than  the  rescued 
gazelle,  offers  Antar  the  three  supreme  delights  of  human 
existence.  He  accepts,  and  the  dream  is  dispelled. 

II. 

The  first  is  the  joy  of  Revenge. 

III. 

The  second  is  the  enjoyment  of  Power. 

IV. 

The  third  is  the  sweetness  of  Love. 

119 


120  RIMSKY-KORSAKOF 

Antar  implores  the  Queen,  if  ever  she  should  suspect  the 
waning  of  his  passion  for  her,  to  take  his  life ;  this  she  promises- 
When,  after  a  prolonged  period  of  happiness  the  Fairy  observes 
that  Antar' s  gaze  turns  longingly  towards  the  horizon,  she 
divines  the  cause  and  embraces  him  passionately.  His  heart 
is  scorched  by  the  fire  of  love,  and  in  Gul-Nazar's  arms  he  dies. 


SHEHERAZADE 

The  Sultan  Shahriar,  convinced  that  all  women  are  by  nature 
false,  has  vowed  to  slay  each  of  his  wives  on  the  morrow  of  the 
nuptials.  But  the  Sultana  Sheherazade  contrives  to  fascinate 
her  murderous  lord  by  recounting  a  series  of  wondrous  tales, 
and  after  a  thousand  and  one  nights  spent  in  listening  to  her 
fantasies  the  Sultan  renounces  his  terrible  resolve. 


LIST    OF   PRINCIPAL  WORKS 

OPERAS 
See  Synopses  p.  111. 

ORCHESTRA 

Symphony,  op.  1.  Symphonic  Picture,  "  Sadko,"  op.  5. 
Serbian  Fantasia,  op.  6.  Symphonic  Suite,  "  Antar,"  op.  9. 
Overture  on  Russian  Themes,  op.  28.  "  The  Tale,"  op.  29. 
Sinfonietta  on  Russian  Themes,  op.  31.  Symphony,  op.  32. 
Spanish  Caprice,  op.  34.  "  Sheherazade,"  op.  35.  Easter 
Overture,  op.  36. 

CHORUS  AND  ORCHESTRA 

"  Svitezyanka,"  op.  44.  Cantata  for  soprano,  tenor,  chorus 
and  orchestra.  "  The  Ballad  of  the  Doom  of  Oleg,"  op.  58, 
for  male  voices  and  orchestra.  "  From  Homer,"  op.  60, 
Prelude-Cantata  for  female  voices,  women's  chorus  and 
orchestra. 

CHAMBER  MUSIC 

String  Quartet,  op.  12.  Contributions  to  "  Belayef," 
"  Birthday"  and  "  Friday  "  Collections. 

String  Sextet,  for  two  violins,  two  violas  and  two  'cellos ; 
posthumous.  Quintet,  for  piano,  flute,  clarinet,  horn  and 
bassoon;  posthumous. 

SOLO  AND  ORCHESTRA 
Piano  Concerto,  op.  30. 

SONGS 

About  sixty,  also  a  number  of  vocal  duets. 
Collection  of  one  hundred  Russian  folk-songs. 


121 


INDEX 


Afanasief,  75 

Alexander  II.,  49,  51 

Alexander  III.,  52,  54 

Angelo,  101 

Antar,  30, 31, 100, 101, 102, 104 

Azanchevsky,  34 

Balakiref,  8,  9,  17,  19,  20-27, 

30,37,41-44,48,49,  61,  96, 

98 

Barber  of  Bagdad,  68 
Beethoven,  19,  20 
Belayef,  51-53,   55,   56,   104, 

105,  106 
Berlioz,  27,  98 
Bezsonof,  62 

Bielsky,  58,  60,  62,  66,  88,  93 
Blumenfeld,  51 
Boris  Godounof,  36,  40,  71, 104 
Borodin,  8,  24,  26,  33,  38,  43, 

45,  46,  51,  53,  54,  55,  71,  75, 

91,  101 
Byron,  49,  66 

Calyocoressi,  66 

Christmas  Eve  Revels,  56,  57, 

74,  75,  77,  85 
Citizens  of  Nijni,  32 
Classicist,  The,  27 
Cui,  8,  18,  19,  20,  24,  29,  31- 

35,  45, 71, 101, 104,  107, 109, 

110 

Dargomijsky,  8,  9,  18,  20,  26, 
29,  30,  31,  33,  59,  70,  71,  82, 
90,  101 


Doom  of  Oleg,  60,  108 
Doubinoushka,  108 
Duetsch,  53,  54 

Easter  Overture,  54,  96,  100, 
103 

Famintsin,  27 

Faust,  22 

Fetis,  102 

Filippof,  42,  80 

Fir  Tree  and  the  Palm,  The, 

109 
Free  School  of  Music,  23-25, 

41-44,  46,  49 

Gedeonof,  32 

Georgia,  The  Hills  of,  109 

Glazounof,  47,  50-55,  61,  63, 

66,  67 
Glinka,  7-9,  11,  19,  26,  42,  43, 

61,  69,  70,  71,  72,  73,  79,  80, 

95-97 

Gogol,  10,  31,44,56,  74 
Golden   Cockerel,   66,   74,    80, 

81,  82,  88,  93,  94,  106 
Golovin,  16 
Grave,  At  the,  63,  104 

Heaven  and  Earth,  66 

I  love  thee,  0  Moon,  109 
Instrumentation,    Treatise  on, 

39,  65,  68 

Ippolitof-Ivanof,  51 
Islamey,  96 


122 


INDEX 


123 


Ivan  the  Terrible,  36,  59,  73 
Ivanof,  101 

Joseph,  13 

Kanille,  17,  20,  21 

Karmalin,  26 

Kashchei,  11,  62,  63,  65,  73, 

77,  78,  87,  88,  91 
Khovanshchina,  38,  71 
Kirievsky,  62 
Kitej,  Legend  of,  62,  64,  74, 

77,  78,  80,  82,  87-89,  93 
Krapotkin,  10 

Krilof,  33 

Life  for  the  Tsar,  A,  8,  9,  16, 

19,  69,  70,  92 
Liszt,  45,  100,  102 
Lomakin,  23 
Lucia,  16 
Lyadof,  24,  45,  51,  54,  63, 107 

Magic  Flute,  13 
Maid  of  Pskof,  30,  33,  34,  37, 
43,  44,  46,  59,  72,  73,  76, 

78,  79,  83,  91,  92,  102 
Mamontof,  58,  59,  60,  62,  64 
Matchmaker,  The,  31,  67,  90 
Mehul,  13 

Mephisto  Valse,  100 
Mercy-Argenteau,  55 
Mey,  30,  43,  60 
Mlada,  54-56,  74,  75,  77,  78, 

81,  82,  85,  94,  102,  106 
Mlada  (Gedeonof  s),  33, 45,  54, 

55 

Molas,  see  A.  Pourgold. 
Moussorgsky,   8,    20,   24,   26, 

27,  30-33,  35-38,  40,  49,  51, 

53,  67,  71,  79,  90 
Mozart,  19,  89 
Mozart  and,  Salierl,  59,  60,  73, 

88,  90,  91 


Napravnik,  32,  46 

Neumann,  85 

Newmarch,  109 

Nicholas  I.,  36 

Night,  30 

Night  in  May,  A,  44-47,  50, 

74,  76,  78-80,  84,  91 
Night  on  the  Bare  Mountain, 

53 
Nymph,  The,  109,  110 

Oriental  Eomance,  26,  108 
Ossovsky,  66 
Ostrovsky,  46,  47,  77,  79 
Oulibishef,  19 
Oxana's  Caprice,  56 

Paleetrina,  41 

Pan  Voyevoda,  63,  75,  91,  92 

Paraphrases,  45,  107 

Parsifal,  64,  74,  88 

Pttrof,  37 

Petrovsky,  62 

Pourgold,  A.,  30,  33,  38 

Pourgold,  N.,  29,  30,  33,  36, 

37   38 

Prince  Igor,  38,  46,  55,  75,  91 
Pushkin,  7,  11,  60,  70,  73,  74, 

90,  95,  97,  102,  103,  108 
Pyatnitsky,  82 

Quartet,  see  String  Quartet 

Rakhmaninof,  66 
Raymonda,  61 
Rimsky-Korsakof,  Mme.,  see 

N.  Pourgold. 

Rimsky-Korsakof,  V.  A.,  35 
Robert,  16,  22 
Rogneda,  101 
Rubinstein,  A.,  24 
Rubinstein,  N.  G.,  45 
Ruibnikof,  82 
Rus<alka,  20,  70 


124 


DsDEX 


Russian  Musical  Societv,  31, 

43 

Bussian  Overture,  96, 98 
Bussian  Svmphony  Concerts, 

53,  54,  63 
Bussian  and  LudmiUa,  16,  69, 

70,  71,  73,  74,  97,  101,  102 
Byabinin,  82 

Sadko  (Operatic),   57-59,   62, 

75,  77,  80,  81,  85,  86,  89,  91, 

92,  93,  94, 106 
Sadko   (Symphonic),   22,   26, 

27,46,  62,  93,  94,  97,  98,  99, 

100,  102 
Secret,  The,  30 
Senkovsky,  30 

Sennacherib,  Destruction  of,  49 
Serbian  Fantasia,  26,  27,  99 
Serof,  101 
SereHia,  60,  61-64,  73,  76,  80, 

81,  91,  92 
Sextet,  105 
Shalyapin,  37,  59 
Shaw,  91,  92 
Sheherazade,  22,  54,  61,  81,  94, 

96,  97,  100,  103,  104,  108 
Shestakof,  26,  33 
Sigjamund  III.,  62 
Sinfonietta  on  Russian  Themes, 

46,  96,  98 
Skryabin,  66,  101 
Snow- Maiden,  46-48,  50,  60, 

76-79,  84,  85,  88,  89,  101 
Spanish  Capriee,  54,  96,  97, 

98,  99,  100,  108 
Stassof,  8, 24,  38,  41, 44, 51,  53 


Steinberg,  67 

Stenka  Bazin,  68 

Stone  Guest,  The,  26,  29,  31, 

33,  34,  36,  37,  59,  63,  70,  71, 

90 

Strauss,  92 
Stravinsky,  63 
String  Quartet,  40,  105 
Sritezyanka,  58,  108 
Symphony  (1st),  96 

Tale,  The,  46,  72,  73,  95,  97, 

98,  99,  100,  102 
Tamara,  96 
Tancredi,  13 
Tchaikovsky,   9,   26,   48,   53, 

56,  79,  105 
Tioumenef,  62 
Tsar  Saltan,    60,  62,  73,  77, 

79,  82,  86,  93 
Tsar's  Bride,  The,  59,  73,  76, 

78,  91,  92 

Ulich,  16,  17 
Upas  Tree,  51,  108 

Variations  Quartet,  107 
Vendredis,  Les,  106,  107 
Vera  Sheloga,  43,  59,  73, 75,  76, 

91 
Vsevolojsky,  54 

Wagner,  23,  54,  85,  86,  87,  88, 

94 
William  Bateliff,  32,  101 

Zimin,  66,  67 


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